UN Resolution on Franco’s Spain: Post-WWII Diplomatic Blockade
The UN Resolution on Relations with Spain
We are faced with a legal text, a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly. The organization was recently established by the Allied nations after the end of the war (Charter of San Francisco, June 25, 1945) to achieve the maintenance of universal peace and fight for the establishment of human rights. World War II had just finished (August 1945), and the new world order of liberal democracies and the USSR sought to establish a country like Spain, which was not well seen for its involvement with the Axis powers, had been clear throughout the war. The purpose of the document is to clarify the position of the UN towards our country, which was, of course, rejected, requiring the Franco government to restore the liberties trampled by the dictatorship.
Paragraph A: Franco’s Fascist Regime
In paragraph A, it is deemed indisputable that the Franco regime was “fascist” and to prove it, it points out that it was imposed by a long and bloody civil war (1936-39) that he won with the support of any kind provided to him, which would be the greatest enemies of the Allies, Hitler and Mussolini. This assistance had materialized in the military, whose ongoing support, most significant were the Italian CTV and the Nazi Condor Legion. Also, the paragraph refers to the “nature” and “behavior” of the fascist regime. Clearly, one of the features of Franco was clear national syndicalism, clearly inspired by fascism. These early years of the dictatorship were lavish in all kinds of fascist symbols, highly consistent with the allies that Franco had chosen. In fact, many historians call this period the “blue years” in reference to the color of the uniform shirt of the Phalanx. But most scholars of Franco consider that the system was coated with these forms without full participation in fascist ideology. Franco’s dictatorship was more of a fascist-inspired autocracy, a system similar to the Italian or German, but if it seemed so from the outside.
Franco’s Alignment with the Axis Powers
One of the things that Franco’s allies blame is their alignment during World War II with the Axis powers. This attitude of Franco was clear but never compromising. The dictatorship provided materials and worked as a spy base and the supply of Nazi submarines, but did not participate directly in the conflict, for his contribution to this was to be more of a burden for Germany than a help, as must be established in the Hendaye interview in 1940. The closest thing to real involvement was sending a corps of volunteers for the invasion of the USSR, the Blue Division, in 1941. But the turnaround in the war made Franco depart from this policy on the Nazi edge, so he replaced his foreign minister, Serrano Súñer, who had been his right hand, and tried to appear more neutral.
The UN’s Diplomatic Blockade
In this situation, the UN committed to the diplomatic blockade of the Franco regime. Spain was excluded from any international forum, and the withdrawal of ambassadors was recommended. The insulation would have huge political and economic repercussions for the country, still trailing the crisis of war, hunger and prolonging the suffering of the Spanish population, compounded by the autarkic policies maintained by the Falangists in power. Thus, in the second decade of the 1940s, while in Europe there was the economic miracle of reconstruction, in our country, economic stagnation continued upon being denied aid under the Marshall Plan. This situation would not solve the international embargo until the tensions between the allies blew up in the Cold War.
The Cold War and US-Spain Relations
Since 1950, the USA discovered that Franco could be an ally for his anti-communism and the country’s strategic position, which would take you to sign a bilateral treaty for the deployment of military bases, which broke the isolation of Spain and entered it into the capitalist bloc, but that if not join NATO or the UN CEE.
The UN’s Call for Democratization
The purpose of this attitude was only trying to achieve the democratization of the country (“new and adequate government”), seeking respect for the rights of Spanish citizens (“freedom of speech, religion, and assembly”), since the Franco dictatorship was far from keeping them. Censorship in the country was fierce and uncompromising. National Catholicism, another of the ideological whims of the Franco regime, imposed the official Catholic religion and imposed its morality and rites on the entire population. Political parties were banned, except the official one, FET de las JONS, and the associations were controlled by the apparatus of the regime, allowing only those religious in nature. The UN called for free elections, which were denied to the Spanish, but Franco, using his political chameleon, had tried to conceal the autocratic nature of his regime with the adoption in 1945 of the National Referendum Act, which granted voting rights to the Spanish for certain queries, which were few and manipulated. That same year also saw the promulgation of the Charter of the Spanish, which recognized certain rights to the Spanish, but always subject to his will and the “general principle of the regime.”
Opposition to Franco
This UN position gave some hope to the exiles. The peaceful opposition was reorganized in Mexico, while the PCE reactivated guerrilla warfare in the interior. On the other hand, Juan de Borbón, the descendant of the official royal family, had tried to sign the new lease, drafting the Manifesto of Lausanne (March 1945), which called on Franco for democratization and the return to a liberal and constitutional monarchy.
Franco’s Consolidation of Power
Given all this, Franco reaffirmed his power. He fought the guerrillas, organized large demonstrations of support in the Plaza de Oriente, and issued the Act of Succession to the Head of State (1947), where he self-appointed Chief for life and stated that he alone would decide who would be his successor. The UN diplomatic offensive could not end the dictatorship, which closed in on itself and resisted these attacks. Changes in international politics would make things easier to consolidate Franco in power until his death.