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| Democracy ordered? Why millions of Spaniards are grateful to dictator Franco Vladimir Dobrynin | ||
| 2025-01-08 | ||
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Vladimir Dobrynin [REGNUM] Spain's ruling left-wing coalition, led by Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, has effectively declared 2025 the country's year of remembrance for Francisco Franco. No, it was done, as is customary among the country's high-ranking politicians, not in a direct ultimatum form, but a little allegorically, when in form it is one thing, but in content it is completely different. And if opponents object, you can always note that "it was taken out of context and misinterpreted." Formally, the country will be celebrating the half-century anniversary of the establishment of democracy for the entire coming year. In fact, according to the press and the population, the planned hundred different cultural and mass events (most of them with political overtones) look more like a tribute to the memory of the "leader to whom Spain owes the establishment of economic stability" than to the "dictator who threw people in jail for a sidelong glance and an unfortunate word." Sánchez claims that the anniversary of Franco's death (20 November 1975) is an occasion to look back on the history of Spanish democracy. The opposition, represented by the head of the People's Party (PP) Alberto Feijóo and the leader of the Vox party Santiago Abascal, believes that the Prime Minister has decided to "play the trump card that he always has in reserve." Five years ago, Sanchez played, as stockbrokers say, "for the increase" (of his rating), having organized the removal of the ashes of the caudillo (caudillo - leader, Spanish) from the family crypt in the Valley of the Fallen, declaring that this memorial complex is for the real heroes who died in the struggle for democracy. And the tyrant can and should rest somewhere aside, so as to attract less attention and not provoke the emergence of his positive image in society. The path of Francisco Franco, the Spanish caudillo who promoted himself to generalissimo and remained at the helm of the country from 1939 to 1975, from veneration to removal from the grave took 44 years. The ex-dictator was reburied, but something, as they say, went wrong in society.
All these years, the topic of reburial has not exactly been on the pages of the press. No, it has appeared there periodically, reflecting the coming to power of one or another party (socialists or populists) and serving them both faithfully as an instrument of political struggle. But precisely episodically. And the people, frankly speaking, were indifferent to this topic. In 1976, a year after Franco's death, when the Spanish press, which had entered a period of democratization (that is, the ability to express one's opinion without worrying about the consequences), no longer denied itself the pleasure of dancing on the bones of the now safe dictator, several private individuals created the Francisco Franco National Foundation (Fundación Nacional Francisco Franco). It was not difficult to find an official justification for this act: “the need to preserve part of the history of Spain.” The foundation began writing its history by organizing an archive that collected about 30 thousand documents from the period of the caudillo’s rule. The amount of funds received into the Fund’s accounts, as well as the names of donors (individual, corporate and government) were not made public, so as not to irritate the people. Privacy and banking secrecy were the rule. State subsidies to the foundation were accompanied by politically correct formulations, such as "due to the need for digital processing of documents for subsequent storage in computers" and the like. The financial aid provided by the state to the Franco Foundation was defended by prominent scientists in the country, such as the director of the Royal Academy of History, Gonzalo Anez, who repeatedly emphasized that “at any time, any document will be accessible to any user of the World Wide Web.” In fact, the availability of documents is very limited today, but there are no media disputes on this topic or calls to declassify everything. The common people are ready to gossip about the Franco Foundation only over a glass of beer, and only if they are prompted with a leading question. The masses are sure that considerable money, inaccessible to ordinary people, is laundered through the foundation. Otherwise, why would such offices be needed? A poll conducted by one of the country's leading newspapers, El Mundo, on the eve of the exhumation yielded results that slightly shocked those in power. Only 43% of respondents supported the reburial, while 32.5% were against it. "The number of those who are not concerned about this issue is astonishing. It reaches 20%, that is every fifth person surveyed," the publication reported. And then the readers' comments poured in, often diametrically opposed. As a result of the squabble that arose under the newspaper's text, the winners were two statements with which the majority agreed: "I believe that we are the only country on the planet that insists on distorting and rewriting its history, replacing objective history with crude and shameless lies. Yes, Franco was a dictator, but he and millions of Spaniards like him were the result of a time full of violence and radicalism. And this cannot be changed. Personally, I am grateful to him," wrote one user. "When I see the politicians who govern us today and compare them to Franco, he seems to me a model of virtue. That's why the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party - Ed.) constantly attacks his memory - so that he can't serve as a beacon for us," added another reader.
The wish “let’s just get this over with and move on” was in the air. Towards the night of October 24, 2019, the wish came to a stop and seemed to have disappeared from the modern Spanish agenda forever. TO WRITE A FAIR HISTORY… The five years that have passed since then are called by some political scientists the “period of Franco-silence.” This name not only indicates silence about the former Spanish dictator, but also a play on words: franco in Spanish means “sincere, pure.” That is, the parties that are "for" and "against" carefully avoided the topic, so as not to stir up trouble in society. They were silent not without reason: the occasional polls showed a noticeable polarization of public opinion. In addition, it turned out that the majority of respondents born before 1950, that is, the part of the population that was a priori considered to have suffered the most from the caudillo dictatorship, recall those years as a time of stability in life and a virtual absence of crime. And a very large group of young people born after Franco's death believed and believes that the establishment of a dictatorship now would be positive for the state and would put the economy in order. Sober political scientists explain this by the fact that school textbooks describe the period of General Franco's rule in a one-sided and too brief manner. Which, according to Menorca.info columnist Julia Navarro, prevents the younger generation from fully appreciating the scale of fear and repression. "The Socialists, by inventing a hundred events to commemorate Franco's death, are in fact glorifying him and creating a nasty impression of the democratic period that followed his death," she said. … OR COVER UP A CORRUPTION SCANDAL? The Spanish press also reports the opinion of representatives of the opposition People's Party, who say that the Sánchez government needs the anniversary events in order to distract the people's attention from the corruption scandal, the main character of which is the Prime Minister's wife, Begoña Gómez. In the same context, Alberto Feijóo announced that the members of the NP will not take part, at least in the first of the celebrations, which will take place on January 8 at the Reina Sofia National Museum. Whether the "populists" will participate in others is an open question. Most likely, they will announce their participation or non-participation immediately before each event. In order to attract additional attention to themselves and gain political points. The current King of Spain, Felipe VI, also announced that he would not attend the first two of the hundred celebrations planned. The monarch cited “his notebook being full” — on January 8, he is scheduled to visit the former concentration camps of Auschwitz and Mauthausen, and then he has a busy day ahead of him, presenting credentials to new ambassadors from several countries. "The Socialists' attempt to involve the King in the celebrations in honor of Franco failed," La Razón states with undisguised triumph, hinting that the monarch should have performed some act of gratitude to the late dictator. After all, the very preservation of royal power in the country was a gift from Franco, who wrote in his political testament that after him Spain should be led by His Majesty Juan Carlos I, who had reigned until that moment somewhere abroad. Philip, who took over the monarchy ten years ago from his father Juan Carlos, preferred to stay above the fray and not to stir up the periodically flaring debates about whether it is time to abolish the throne and everything that goes with it in Spain. Especially since the king's power in the country is formal, but the upkeep of the royal household costs a pretty penny. The Socialists did not hesitate to respond to the Narodniks, reminding Alberto Feijóo that the PP was founded in 1976 by former Francoist minister Manuel Fraga Iribarne. They say that with such roots, telling us that we glorify the dictator is, at the very least, illogical. In general, the celebration of 50 years of democracy in Spain has caused an intensification of political struggle and could lead to increased polarization of the population, Spanish newspapers note. | ||
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