Key Events in Spain’s Transition to Democracy After Franco
Key Events in Spain’s Transition to Democracy
Vatican II: I personally think this was key to the progress of the forces that opposed Franco and sought continuity of the dictatorship. With the council, the church in Spain, which had hitherto given full support to the conservative side and Franco, started since then to support the opposition of the regime. This gave less power to the dictatorship and great support to the opposition through demonstrations of workers and students, and clandestine meetings of organizations and policies against the regime. Had it not been for this change of position by the church, perhaps social opposition to the Franco regime would not have had enough strength to destabilize the regime as was achieved in the last years of Franco’s dictatorship.
Franco’s Death: This really was the key fact that ended the dictatorship and began the transition. Maybe along with Carrero Blanco’s death two years earlier, these two deaths ensured that there was no form of dictatorship in Spain. Although the regime had reached a completely destabilized end point thanks to large uprisings, strikes, and demonstrations by the people against the regime, with Franco still alive, the dictatorship maintained a strong opposition. While Franco lived, there were death sentences of several innocent civilians in order to keep the regime firm. Honestly, I think if Franco had not died, the dictatorship in Spain would have continued. I do not think that it would have otherwise died out completely or that Franco would have been forced out of power to end the regime.
The Government of Adolfo Suarez: initiated contacts with the democratic forces and proposed a bill to reform politics. Spain pushed hard to become the democracy it is today. Thanks to his position in the government, parties were legalized, including the PCE and PSUC, who opposed Franco. This further ensured a transition to democracy. During his government, the first democratic elections took place, in which the left was left out of politics. Ultimately, Adolfo Suarez’s government was, in my opinion, a key event for the transition.
Coup of 23 February: The coup of 23 February and the great performance of King Juan Carlos showed the strong position that democracy was preferred in the government and made clear the king’s position against another military uprising similar to Franco’s coup at the beginning of the Civil War. With this coup of February 23, the progress could have been reversed, and Spain could have returned to another possible Civil War, undoing the democratic progress that the government of Suarez was achieving. This is why the actions of King Juan Carlos were key to the total positioning drive in Spain and the desire for progress and democracy.
Seat 600: As a symbol of progress and prosperity after centuries of backwardness in comparison with the rest of Western Europe.
The fact that the Hispanic population began to achieve purchasing power meant the operation of the economy. The Fiat 600 was not just a simple car, but the symbol of economic prosperity and the stage at which this wave of economic prosperity and tourism in Spain modernized the entire society and left aside the regime as something out of place. Women were no longer seen as caretakers of the house if they had to work, and if the tourists were in bikinis, why couldn’t the women here be? All these facts, and economic growth, drove the modernization and greater opposition of the population against the regime, thus beginning to destabilize the regime through protests, strikes, and demonstrations against the lack of freedom and the laws and policies that kept the conservative dictatorship in place.