Spain

G3

e

Last Years of Franco’s Regime

Spain’s growing prosperity and moves toward greater liberalization did not end social and political unrest. Many strikes occurred in Spain during the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Students protested against overcrowded facilities and government control. Catalan and Basque regionalists again became politically active.

By far the most important regionalist conflict arose in the Basque provinces. An extremist wing of Basque nationalism found expression in the separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA; Basque for “Basque Homeland and Liberty”). In the 1960s the ETA launched terrorist attacks against police and army units. The government responded with indiscriminate repression, including arbitrary beatings and arrests of suspected Basque nationalists. A vicious cycle of violence and counterviolence gripped the Basque provinces from 1969 to 1975. In 1970 several ETA leaders were sentenced to death in military trials held in the city of Burgos. Nations around the world protested the trials. The Spanish government eventually backed down and commuted the ETA death sentences.

As Franco aged his control over public affairs diminished. In 1973 Franco created the post of prime minister and separated executive functions from his role as head of state. He yielded the new post to Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, a longtime friend and supporter. Shortly after taking power Carrero Blanco was assassinated in a spectacular explosion engineered by the ETA. Carlos Arias Navarro, a moderate Francoist, succeeded Carrero Blanco.

Carrero Blanco’s death was a severe blow to the regime. Instead of reverting to massive repression, however, Arias announced further liberalization measures. These included plans to permit the formation of political associations, which had been forbidden since 1939. Arias’s initiatives sparked a revolt by hard-line Francoists, who sought a return to a strong dictatorship. For a brief period it seemed that they might succeed. Conservatives sabotaged Arias’s attempted reforms and passed a law requiring the death penalty for terrorists who killed police. In September 1975 five Basque nationalists were executed, despite international protests and a plea for clemency from the pope. The possibility of further moves to the right diminished, however, when Franco died in November 1975. Arias continued as prime minister, and Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón, whom Franco had designated as his successor in 1969, became head of state as King Juan Carlos I.

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H

The Restoration of Democracy

Franco’s death aroused fresh hopes for a democratic Spain. The new king favored full democratization, but many powerful interests opposed change. The modest reforms proposed by Arias under the dictatorship were soon seen as inadequate by much of the population, including workers who demanded legalization of independent labor unions. Hard-line Francoists viewed the measures as too extreme. The deadlock was broken in July 1976 when Arias resigned at the request of the king. Juan Carlos appointed Adolfo Suárez González as the new prime minister.

A former minister under Franco, Suárez became chief architect of Spain’s successful transition to democracy. Suárez convinced the Cortes to pass the Political Reform Law, which the country overwhelmingly approved by referendum in December 1976. The referendum established universal suffrage and called for a bicameral legislature consisting of a popularly elected lower house and an upper house composed of both elected and appointed members. In February 1977 opposition political parties deemed to be democratic were legalized. Despite strong objections from the military, Suárez even legalized the Spanish Communist Party in April to ensure that the coming elections would be regarded as legitimate. In the same month the National Movement—the official state party under Franco—ceased to exist. As part of the reform process, the unrepresentative Francoist Cortes literally voted itself out of existence, a remarkable end to a long and often painful dictatorship.

H

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Parliamentary Democracy

In June 1977 Spain held its first democratic elections to parliament since 1936. The elections reaffirmed Suárez’s centrist policies. His newly formed coalition, the Union of the Democratic Center (UDC), emerged as the strongest party, and claimed nearly half the seats in the lower house of parliament. The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party finished a close second. Few seats went to extremist parties, either of the left or right. Suárez governed through consensus, consulting all mainstream parties when formulating national policies.

H

2

The 1978 Constitution

The government’s first order of business was to draft a new democratic constitution for Spain. In 1978 the parliament approved a constitution, which easily won the endorsement of voters in a national referendum. The constitution established a constitutional monarchy in Spain with the king serving as head of state and symbol of national unity. It created an independent judiciary and placed significant restrictions on two of Spain’s most historically important institutions: the military and the Catholic Church. Constitutional provisions affirmed civilian control over the military and denied Catholicism the status of a state religion.

One of the most striking features of the constitution was its recognition of limited autonomy for Spain’s historical regions. Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia were quickly granted home rule and their languages were officially recognized. Provisions were made for the extension of limited autonomy to more than a dozen other regions across the country. Thus, the new constitution effectively reversed the movement toward political centralization begun by Ferdinand and Isabella in the 15th century, and Spain began to redefine itself as a nation of autonomous communities. Despite formal constitutional guarantees of limited self-government, however, regionalist demands for greater autonomy from the central government have remained a difficult problem for Spain.

H

3

Turbulent Transition

Spain’s young parliamentary democracy faced several challenges. The nation’s economic growth had slowed by the mid-1970s, and inflation and unemployment became increasingly severe throughout the decade. In addition, the limited autonomy extended to the Basque Country failed to satisfy Basque separatists, who resented being tied to Spain; terrorist activity by the ETA intensified. At the same time, democratization produced unrest among right-wing extremists. After the national elections in 1979, which returned Suárez and his centrist coalition to power, rightist segments within the UDC reasserted themselves. Suárez’s style of consensus politics broke down as the UDC coalition dissolved into factions. Suárez resigned in January 1981 and was succeeded by another UDC leader, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo.

Conservative military officers opposed to rapid political and social change seized the occasion of a change in prime ministers to attempt a coup d’état. On February 23, 1981, armed civil guards led by Lieutenant-Colonel Antonio Tejero invaded the Cortes in an effort to seize power. King Juan Carlos played a key role in blocking the coup by convincing most Spanish military units to remain loyal to the government. Calvo Sotelo resumed leadership of the government. In 1982 Calvo Sotelo secured Spain’s membership in NATO.

Shortly before the 1982 national elections another plot by right-wing extremists to stage a military coup was discovered. Four military leaders were arrested and three were later imprisoned. News of the plot helped swing the elections to the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, led by Felipe González Márquez. The elections gave Spain its first socialist government since the 1930s. The UCD was so badly defeated it went out of existence almost immediately. The Democratic Coalition, an alliance of conservative parties under the leadership of Manuel Fraga, took the place of the UCD and became the official opposition.

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