Sociological Francoism

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Plaza de Oriente, with the Royal Palace of Madrid behind. This was the setting for the largest pro-Francoist demonstrations both during the dictator's life and after his death. Francoists who remain nostalgic of the regime still commemorate his death here every 20 November (known in Spanish as 20-N).
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Sociological Francoism (Spanish: franquismo sociológico) is an expression used in Spain which attests to the social characteristics typical of Francoism that survived in Spanish society after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975 and continue to the present day.[1]

The root causes of sociological Francoism are found in the prolonged state of repression that existed during the forty years of the Franco dictatorship (1936–1975), and the fear of a repetition of the Spanish Civil War and a clashing of the so-called two Spains. A further reason for its durability is the positive role attributed to Francoism in the Spanish economic boom (the Spanish miracle, 1959–1975), while avoiding reference to the mass Spanish emigration or the period of economic recession that prevailed during the ten years following the Transition (1975–1985). All of this led the Spanish social majority, including even those identified with the anti-Francoist opposition, to perpetuate the conservative and survivalist behaviours that were learned and transmitted from generation to generation since the 1940s. These include self-censorship and the voluntary submission and conformity to authority[2] – which in extreme cases could even be classified as servility (most commonly identified with the "silent majority") – which provided the regime with its cheapest, most effective and most ubiquitous form of repression.[3]

In an interview with Xavier Moret, the writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán described the phenomenon in the following way:

There was a sociological Francoism which existed before and still exists to a greater or lesser extent today, coupled with Francoist rhetoric in which only the best years – those of 1962 or 1963 and the first part of the 1970s – are remembered, omitting the years of misery and the economic recession that existed prior to the Spanish Civil War and continued to grow under Francoism. The economically prosperous years have been mythologized within sociological Francoism; however, we should remind ourselves that this success was based on exporting the unemployed first to Catalonia and the Basque Country and then later to Europe.[4]

In a similar vein, the philosopher José Luis López Aranguren has written that "Francoism, while originally a political system, transformed into a way of life for the Spanish people".[5]

Sociological Francoism and political culture

In the exercise of political power, sociological Francoism is defined as "the political culture of identification with the [Francoist] regime".[6]

However, the journalist

Spanish organic law referendum of 1966). In 1969, in one of his last televised Christmas addresses, Franco spoke of Spain's future, saying that all was atado y bien atado[8] (literally "tied and well tied", referring to the institutionalization of his regime), which became a popular saying in Spain. Any clues to his personal health were carefully scrutinized, as were his cryptically expressed intentions, such as the phrase no hay mal que por bien no venga (roughly equivalent to "every cloud has a silver lining"), which he used in reference to the assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973 by the Basque separatist group ETA,[9] and whose meaning was the subject of endless speculation. In a secret 1971 interview with Vernon Walters, envoy of Richard Nixon, Franco expressed his opinion that upon his death, Spanish society would carry out a political evolution that would not break with his legacy, as the now larger and more well-off Spanish middle class would avoid risking another civil war.[10]

In the regime change that followed Franco's death in 1975, however, those that remained most loyal to Francoism were relegated to far-right movements that failed to gain a single seat in 1977 (and only elected a single MP,

second general elections in 1979 under the coalitionist Unión nacional banner).[11] The political right, represented by a coalition of former Francoist administrators under the banner of the Alianza Popular (referred to as aperturistas, those in favour of social reform), attempted to strike a balance between the need to connect with the social majority while at the same time minimizing associations with the past, though with very little electoral success. During the 1970s and 1980s, the social majority tended to vote for parties from the centre (such as the UCD, led by Adolfo Suárez) or the left (PSOE
).

In a book about the Transition,

Italian unification in his novel The Leopard: "The ruling classes need to change something so that everything remains the same".[14]

Con Franco vivíamos mejor

A sign of the survival of Francoist sentiment in a large segment of the population was, among other things, the widespread success of far-right sympathiser

Spanish Miracle – as another area that has remained identified with Francoism, describing Madrid as having changed from the "red breakwater of all the Spains" to an "ostentatious showcase of upstart sociological neo-Francoism".[17]

The writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán has been attributed with penning the satirical derivative phrase "contra Franco vivíamos mejor" (literally "We lived better against Franco").[18]

Esto con Franco no pasaba

Another saying that remains present in Spanish society is "Esto con Franco no pasaba" ("This never used to happen with Franco"). It was initially used as a way of denouncing behaviours, arising soon after the death of Franco, that contradicted the norms of the ultra-Catholic morality (see: the destape (literally "uncovering") period of Spanish cinema that followed the abolition of censorship, or the Movida Madrileña).

Currently it is usually used in a rhetorical way to point out the irony that, despite living in a liberal democracy, some freedoms that were permitted by the Francoist regime, such as smoking in public places or barbecuing in the mountains or the beach, have been taken away. Similarly, it is used to criticize current problems in society that did not exist in the Franco era, like the Spanish property bubble, and the consequent delay in young adults leaving the family home.[19]

Moncloa syndrome

The Palace of Moncloa has been the official residence of the Prime Minister since Adolfo Suárez moved it from the former, traditional, location at 3 Paseo de la Castellana next to the Plaza de Colón in Madrid. The isolation attributed to the new location, in a palace whose setting in the northeastern part of the capital brings to mind Franco's residence in the Royal Palace of El Pardo, is reflected in the expression "Moncloa syndrome", which is used to describe the haughtiness or detachment from reality that has supposedly affected all successive Prime Ministers.[20]

Debates have continued as to whether, in a democratic sense, the lasting effects of Francoism were greater or lesser than the actual changes. One aspect described as an inheritance from the Francoist past is the notable personalism of Spain's leadership (e.g.

Ciudadanos
has produced a more fragmented parliament.

Criticism of the concept

In an essay, the Spanish academic Carlos Ollero expressed the following reservations about the concept of sociological Francoism:

I think that this expression is imprecise and can lend itself to misunderstandings. It is necessary to distinguish between two interrelated, yet different, meanings, with varying degrees of effectiveness. The first, stricter, meaning refers to the complex of socioeconomic structures and concrete interests that are created, maintained and strengthened by the Francoist system. The second, too broad, includes under the umbrella term of "sociological Francoism" what, in general terms, can be understood as the ensemble of sociopolitical attitudes, consistencies in personal and collective behaviour, and passive or indecisive inertia prompted by forty years of steadfast exercise of personal power.[24]

See also

References

  1. ^ Justel, Manuel (1992). "Edad y Cultura Politica". Reis. 58: 69.
  2. ^ Molares do Val, Manuel (4 June 2005). "Franquismo sociológico". Crónicas Bárbaras.
  3. ^ "Interview with José Ribas". 4 February 2008.
  4. ^ Moret, Xavier. "El franquismo era feísimo; daba la impresión de que a todo el mundo le olían los calcetines".
  5. ISBN 9788430630318
    .
  6. ^ Reig Cruañes, José (1999). La cultura política en la crisis del franquismo (PDF). Alicante: Doctoral Thesis in the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras in the Universidad de Alicante. p. 195.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ Maestre, Antonio (6 October 2013). "La mayoría silenciosa, el Partido Popular y el franquismo sociológico | lamarea.com". lamarea.com (in European Spanish). Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  8. ^ Barrios, Froilán (8 February 2017). "¿Todo está atado y bien atado?". El Nacional (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  9. ^ Barrón, Gaspar (20 January 2007). "¿No hay mal que por bien no venga? | Galicia | Galicia". ABC.es. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  10. ^ ABC. "Francisco Franco y Richard Nixon". ABC.es (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  11. ^ "Blas Piñar: Extremist who remained stubbornly loyal to the memory of". The Independent. 1 February 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  12. OCLC 7212228
    .
  13. ^ del Águila Tejerina, Rafael (1982). "La transición a la democracia en España: Reforma, Ruptura y Consenso" (PDF). Revista de Estudios Políticos. 25: 101–128. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-23.
  14. ^ López Salinas, Armando (April 2004). "Unidad Cívica por la República". www.unidadcivicaporlarepublica.es. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  15. ^ "¿Por qué voy a tener que condenar yo el franquismo?". La Voz de Galicia (in European Spanish). 14 October 2007. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  16. ^ "Juan Luis Cebrián". 26 February 2008. Archived from the original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  17. ^ "Crítica | Espejismo del espacio público". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). 18 October 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  18. ^ "¿Contra Franco vivíamos mejor?" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  19. ^ "Esto con Franco no pasaba. larioja.com". www.larioja.com. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  20. ^ "Reportaje | "He pasado noches sin dormir"". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). 25 July 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  21. ^ "If I were Zapatero... If I were Rajoy (Reflexiones para un momento postelectoral) | Opinión | La Tercera". ABC.es. 29 January 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  22. ^ Gil Grande, Rocío (12 November 2019). "El primer Gobierno de coalición que marcaría un nuevo hito en la historia de España". RTVE (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  23. ^ Castro, Irene (10 January 2020). "Pedro Sánchez se rodea de perfiles técnicos frente al peso político de Unidas Podemos". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  24. ^ Ollero, Carlos (May–June 1984). "Cambio político, monarquía parlamentaria y consolidación de la democracia". Cuenta y Razón. 17.
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