Spanish transition to democracy
Encyclopedia
The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain
moved from the dictatorship
of Francisco Franco
to a liberal democratic
state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish Constitution of 1978
, the failure of Antonio Tejero's attempted coup
on 23 February 1981, or the electoral victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
(PSOE) on 28 October 1982.
to the throne. Until Franco’s death, Juan Carlos had remained in the background and seemed to follow the dictator’s plans of appointing him his successor as head of state with the title of King of Spain. Once in power as king, Juan Carlos facilitated the development of the current political system, as his father, Don Juan de Borbón, had advocated since 1946.
The transition was an ambitious plan that counted on ample support both within and outside of Spain. Western governments, headed by the United States
, now favored a Spanish constitutional monarchy
, as did many Spanish and international capitalists
.
Nevertheless, the transition proved challenging, as the spectre of the Civil War
(1936–1939) still haunted Spain. Francoists on the far right
enjoyed considerable support within the Spanish Army
, and people of the left
distrusted a king who owed his position to Franco.
The realization of the democratic project required that the leftist opposition restrain its own most radical elements from provocation, and that the army refrain from intervening in the political process on behalf of Francoist elements within the existing government.
Juan Carlos began his reign without leaving the confines of Franco's legal system. As such, he swore fidelity to the Principles of the Movimiento Nacional
, the sole legal party of the Franco era; took possession of the crown before the Francoist Cortes Generales; and respected the Ley Orgánica del Estado (Organic Law of the State) for the appointment of his first head of government
. Only in his speech before the Cortes did he indicate his support for a transformation of the Spanish political system.
’s placement on the new list of three candidates for head of the government. The king chose Suárez because he felt he could meet the challenge of the difficult political process that lay ahead: persuading the Cortes (Spanish parliament), which was composed of installed Francoist politicians, to dismantle Franco
’s system. In this manner he would formally act within the Francoist legal system and thus avoid the prospect of military intervention in the political process.
Suárez quickly presented a clear political program based on two points:
This program was clear and unequivocal, but its realization tested the political capacity of Suárez. He had to convince both the opposition to participate in his plan and the army to allow the process to run uninterrupted, and at the same time needed to bring under control the situation in the Basque Country
.
Despite these challenges, Suárez's project was carried out without delay between July 1976 and June 1977. In this short period of time Suárez had to act on many fronts to achieve his aims.
, speaker of the Cortes, who handed it over to the Suárez government in July 1976. The project was approved by the Suarez Government in September 1976. To open the door to parliamentary democracy in Spain, this legislation could not simply create a new political system by eliminating the obstacles put in place by the Franco regime against democracy: it had to liquidate the Francoist system through the Francoist Cortes itself. Throughout the month of November the Cortes, under the able presidency of Fernández Miranda, debated this law, which it ultimately approved with 425 votes in favor, 59 against, and 13 abstentions.
The Suárez government sought to gain further legitimacy for the changes through a popular referendum. On 15 December 1976, with a 77.72% participation rate, 94% of voters indicated their support for the changes. From this moment, it was possible to begin the electoral process (the second part of the Suárez program), which would serve to elect the deputies of the Constituent Cortes
, the body that was to be responsible for creating a democratic constitution.
With this part of his plan fulfilled, Suárez had to resolve a crucial issue: should he include the opposition groups who had not participated in the beginning of the transition? Suárez also had to deal with another delicate issue: coming to terms with the anti-Francoist opposition.
(TOP), a sort of Francoist secret police
, was dissolved. In March 1977, the right to strike
was legalized, with the right to unionize
being granted the following month. Also in March a new electoral law (Ley Electoral) introduced the necessary framework for Spain's electoral system to be brought into accord with those of other countries that were liberal
parliamentary democracies.
Through these and other measures of government, Suárez complied with the conditions that the opposition groups first demanded in 1974. These opposition forces met in November 1976 to create a platform of democratic organizations.
Suárez had initiated political contact with the opposition by meeting with Felipe González
, secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
(PSOE), in August 1976. The positive attitude of the socialist leader gave further support for Suárez to carry forward his political project, but everyone clearly perceived that the big problem for the political normalization of the country would be the legalization of the Communist Party of Spain (Partido Comunista de España, PCE), which had, at the time, more activists and was more organized than any other group in the political opposition. However, in a meeting between Suárez and the most important military leaders in September, the officers strongly declared opposition to the legalization of the PCE.
The PCE, for its part, acted ever more publicly to express its opinions. According to the Communists, the Law for Political Reform was anti-democratic, and, moreover, the elections for the Constituent Cortes should be called by a provisional government that formed part of the political forces of the opposition. The opposition did not show any enthusiasm for the Law for Political Reform. Suárez had to risk even more to involve the opposition forces in his plan.
In December 1976, the PSOE celebrated its 27th Congress in Madrid
, and began to disassociate itself from the demands of the PCE, affirming that it would participate in the next call for elections for the Constituent Cortes. In the beginning of 1977, the year of the elections, Suárez decided to confront the problem of legalizing the PCE. After the public indignation lifted by the Massacre of Atocha
in January 1977 against trade-unionists and Communists, Suárez decided to talk with PCE secretary general Santiago Carrillo
in February. Carrillo's willingness to collaborate without prior demands and his offer of a "social pact" for the period after the elections pushed Suárez to take the riskiest step of the transition: the legalization of the PCE in April 1977. However, throughout this critical period the government began a strategy of providing greater institutional space to the Unión General de Trabajadores
(UGT) Socialist union in comparison to the then Communist-oriented CCOO. The manner in which a unified trade union was strategically countered is an important feature of the Spanish transition as it limited radical opposition and created the basis for a fractured industrial relations system.
"—a group of hard-line Francoists led by José Antonio Girón
and Blas Piñar
, using the newspapers El Alcázar
and Arriba
as their mouthpieces— had close contacts with officials in the army and exercised influence over important sectors of the military. These forces could constitute an insurmountable obstacle if they brought about military intervention against political reform.
To resolve the issue, Suárez intended to support himself with a liberal group within the military, centered on General Díez Alegría. Suárez decided to give the members of this group the positions of authority with the most responsibility. The most notable personality of this faction within the army was General Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado
. But in July 1976, the Vice President for Defense Affairs was General Fernando de Santiago, a member of a hardline group within the army. De Santiago had shown his restlessness before, during the first amnesty in July 1976. He had opposed the law granting the right to unionize. Suárez dismissed Fernando de Santiago and nominated instead Gutiérrez Mellado. This confrontation with General de Santiago caused a large part of the army to oppose Suárez, an opposition that further intensified when the PCE was legalized.
Meanwhile, Gutiérrez Mellado promoted officials who supported political reform and removed those commanders of security forces (Policía Armada and the Guardia Civil) who seemed to support preserving the Francoist regime.
Suárez wanted to demonstrate to the army that the political normalization of the country meant neither anarchy nor revolution. In this, he counted on the collaboration of Santiago Carrillo, but he could in no way count on the collaboration of terrorist groups.
, which in the summer of 1976 seemed open to a limited truce after Franco's death, resumed armed confrontation again in October. 1978–1980 would be ETA's three deadliest years ever. But it was between December 1976 and January 1977 when a series of attacks brought about a situation of high tension in Spain.
The Maoist GRAPO (Grupos de Resistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre) began its armed struggle by bombing public locations, and then continued with the kidnapping of two important figures of the regime: the President of the Council of the State José María de Oriol, and General Villaescusa, President of the Superior Council of the Military Justice. From the right, during these kidnappings, members of the neo-fascist Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista murdered six members of the PCE
, five of them labor lawyers, in an office on Atocha Street in Madrid in January 1977.
In the midst of these provocations, Suárez convened his first meeting with a significant number of opposition leaders, who published a condemnation of terrorism and gave their support to Suárez's actions. During this turbulent time, the Búnker capitalized on the instability and declared that the country was on the brink of chaos.
Despite the increased violence by the ETA and GRAPO, elections for the Constituent Cortes were carried out in June 1977.
The elections
that were held on June 15, 1977, confirmed the existence of four important political forces at the national level. The votes broke down in the following manner:
With the success of the Basque Nationalist Party
(PNV, Partido Nacionalista Vasco) and the Democratic Pact for Catalonia (PDC, Pacte Democrátic per Catalunya) in their respective regions, nationalist
parties also began to show their political strength in these elections.
The Constituent Cortes
(elected Spanish parliament) began to draft a constitution in the summer of 1977. In 1978 the Moncloa Pact was passed: an agreement amongst politicians, political parties, and trade unions to plan how to operate the economy during the transition. The Spanish Constitution of 1978
went on to be approved in a referendum on the December 6, 1978.
The UCD received a plurality, but not an absolute majority, in both the June 1977 and March 1979 elections. To exercise power, the UCD had to form parliamentary coalitions
with other political parties.
The government spent much of its time from 1979 working to hold together the many tendencies within the party itself, as well as their coalitions. In 1980, the Suárez government had for the most part accomplished its goals of transition to democracy and lacked a further clear agenda. Many UCD members were fairly conservative and did not want further change. For example, a bill to legalize divorce caused much dissension inside the UCD, in spite of being supported by the majority of the populace . The UCD coalition fell apart.
The clashes among the several tendencies inside the party eroded Suárez's authority and his role as leader. The tension exploded in 1981: Suárez resigned as the head of government, and Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo
was appointed, first to lead the new cabinet and later to the presidency of the UCD; social democrats led by Francisco Fernández Ordóñez
defected from the coalition.
While the democratic normalization had succeeded in convincing ETA (pm), the "political-military" faction of ETA, to abandon arms and enter parliamentary politics, it did not stop the continuation of terrorist attacks by ETA (m) ("ETA Military"; later simply "ETA"), and, to a lesser extent, by GRAPO. Meanwhile, restlessness in various sections of the armed forces created fear of an impending military coup. The attempted coup known as 23-F
, in which Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero
led an occupation by a group of Guardia Civil of the Congress of Deputies
on the afternoon of 23 February 1981 failed, but demonstrated the existence of insurrectionary elements within the army.
gave an absolute majority to the PSOE, which had already spent many years preparing its image of an alternative government.
In the 28th Congress of the PSOE (May 1979), secretary-general Felipe González resigned rather than ally with the strong revolutionary elements that seemed to dominate the party. A special congress was called that September, and realigned the party along more moderate lines, renouncing Marxism
and allowing González to take charge once more.
Throughout 1982, the PSOE confirmed its moderate orientation and brought in the social democrats who had just broken from the UCD.
Winning an absolute majority in parliament in two consecutive elections (1982 and 1986), and exactly half the seats in 1989, allowed the PSOE to legislate and govern without establishing pacts with the other parliamentary political forces. In this way, the PSOE could make laws to achieve the goals of its political program, "el cambio" ("the change"). At the same time, the PSOE led many local and regional administrations. This comfortable political majority allowed the PSOE to give the country a long period of tranquility and stability, after the intense years of the transition.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
moved from the dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
of Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
to a liberal democratic
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish Constitution of 1978
Spanish Constitution of 1978
-Structure of the State:The Constitution recognizes the existence of nationalities and regions . Preliminary Title As a result, Spain is now composed entirely of 17 Autonomous Communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy, to the extent that, even though the Constitution...
, the failure of Antonio Tejero's attempted coup
23-F
23-F was an attempted coup d'état in Spain that began on 23 February 1981 and ended on the following day. It is also known as El Tejerazo from the name of its most visible figure, Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup's most notable event: the bursting into the Spanish Congress of Deputies by a...
on 23 February 1981, or the electoral victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
(PSOE) on 28 October 1982.
Political role of Juan Carlos I
The death of Franco elevated Don Juan Carlos de BorbónJuan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...
to the throne. Until Franco’s death, Juan Carlos had remained in the background and seemed to follow the dictator’s plans of appointing him his successor as head of state with the title of King of Spain. Once in power as king, Juan Carlos facilitated the development of the current political system, as his father, Don Juan de Borbón, had advocated since 1946.
The transition was an ambitious plan that counted on ample support both within and outside of Spain. Western governments, headed by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, now favored a Spanish constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
, as did many Spanish and international capitalists
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
.
Nevertheless, the transition proved challenging, as the spectre of the Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936–1939) still haunted Spain. Francoists on the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
enjoyed considerable support within the Spanish Army
Spanish Army
The Spanish Army is the terrestrial army of the Spanish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is one of the oldest active armies - dating back to the 15th century.-Introduction:...
, and people of the left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
distrusted a king who owed his position to Franco.
The realization of the democratic project required that the leftist opposition restrain its own most radical elements from provocation, and that the army refrain from intervening in the political process on behalf of Francoist elements within the existing government.
Juan Carlos began his reign without leaving the confines of Franco's legal system. As such, he swore fidelity to the Principles of the Movimiento Nacional
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
, the sole legal party of the Franco era; took possession of the crown before the Francoist Cortes Generales; and respected the Ley Orgánica del Estado (Organic Law of the State) for the appointment of his first head of government
Head of government
Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
. Only in his speech before the Cortes did he indicate his support for a transformation of the Spanish political system.
First government of Adolfo Suárez (July 1976 - June 1977)
Fernández Miranda, as president of the Council of the Kingdom, obtained Adolfo SuárezAdolfo Suárez
Adolfo Suárez y González, 1st Duke of Suárez, Grandee of Spain, KOGF is a Spanish lawyer and politician. Suárez was Spain's first democratically elected prime minister after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and the key figure in the country's transition to democracy.-Parents:He is a son of...
’s placement on the new list of three candidates for head of the government. The king chose Suárez because he felt he could meet the challenge of the difficult political process that lay ahead: persuading the Cortes (Spanish parliament), which was composed of installed Francoist politicians, to dismantle Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
’s system. In this manner he would formally act within the Francoist legal system and thus avoid the prospect of military intervention in the political process.
Suárez quickly presented a clear political program based on two points:
- The development of a Law for Political Reform that, once approved by the Cortes and Spanish public in a referendum, would open the constituent process for creating a liberal democracy in Spain.
- A call for democratic elections in June 1977 to elect a Cortes charged with drawing up a new democratic constitution.
This program was clear and unequivocal, but its realization tested the political capacity of Suárez. He had to convince both the opposition to participate in his plan and the army to allow the process to run uninterrupted, and at the same time needed to bring under control the situation in the Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
.
Despite these challenges, Suárez's project was carried out without delay between July 1976 and June 1977. In this short period of time Suárez had to act on many fronts to achieve his aims.
The Law for Political Reform
The draft of the Law for Political Reform (Ley para la Reforma Política) was written by Torcuato Fernández-MirandaTorcuato Fernández-Miranda
Don Torcuato Fernández Miranda y Hevia, 1st Duke of Fernandez-Miranda, Grandee of Spain, KOGF was a Spanish lawyer and politician who played important roles in both the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and in the Spanish transition to democracy.Fernández Miranda was born in Gijón, Asturias, on...
, speaker of the Cortes, who handed it over to the Suárez government in July 1976. The project was approved by the Suarez Government in September 1976. To open the door to parliamentary democracy in Spain, this legislation could not simply create a new political system by eliminating the obstacles put in place by the Franco regime against democracy: it had to liquidate the Francoist system through the Francoist Cortes itself. Throughout the month of November the Cortes, under the able presidency of Fernández Miranda, debated this law, which it ultimately approved with 425 votes in favor, 59 against, and 13 abstentions.
The Suárez government sought to gain further legitimacy for the changes through a popular referendum. On 15 December 1976, with a 77.72% participation rate, 94% of voters indicated their support for the changes. From this moment, it was possible to begin the electoral process (the second part of the Suárez program), which would serve to elect the deputies of the Constituent Cortes
Constituent Cortes
Constituent Cortes is the description of Spain's parliament, the Cortes, when convened as a constituent assembly.In the 20th century, only one Constituent Cortes was officially opened , and that was the Republican Cortes in 1931.The Cortes in 1977 enacted the new Spanish constitution...
, the body that was to be responsible for creating a democratic constitution.
With this part of his plan fulfilled, Suárez had to resolve a crucial issue: should he include the opposition groups who had not participated in the beginning of the transition? Suárez also had to deal with another delicate issue: coming to terms with the anti-Francoist opposition.
Relations of the Suárez government with the opposition
Suárez adopted a series of measured policies to add credibility to his project. In July 1976 he issued a partial political amnesty, freeing 400 prisoners. He extended this in March 1977, and finally granted a blanket amnesty in May of the same year. In December 1976 the Tribunal de Orden PúblicoTribunal de Orden Público
Tribunal de Orden Público was a special court for political crimes in Francoist Spain....
(TOP), a sort of Francoist secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
, was dissolved. In March 1977, the right to strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
was legalized, with the right to unionize
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
being granted the following month. Also in March a new electoral law (Ley Electoral) introduced the necessary framework for Spain's electoral system to be brought into accord with those of other countries that were liberal
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
parliamentary democracies.
Through these and other measures of government, Suárez complied with the conditions that the opposition groups first demanded in 1974. These opposition forces met in November 1976 to create a platform of democratic organizations.
Suárez had initiated political contact with the opposition by meeting with Felipe González
Felipe González
Felipe González Márquez is a Spanish socialist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. To date, he remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996.-Early life:Felipe was...
, secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
(PSOE), in August 1976. The positive attitude of the socialist leader gave further support for Suárez to carry forward his political project, but everyone clearly perceived that the big problem for the political normalization of the country would be the legalization of the Communist Party of Spain (Partido Comunista de España, PCE), which had, at the time, more activists and was more organized than any other group in the political opposition. However, in a meeting between Suárez and the most important military leaders in September, the officers strongly declared opposition to the legalization of the PCE.
The PCE, for its part, acted ever more publicly to express its opinions. According to the Communists, the Law for Political Reform was anti-democratic, and, moreover, the elections for the Constituent Cortes should be called by a provisional government that formed part of the political forces of the opposition. The opposition did not show any enthusiasm for the Law for Political Reform. Suárez had to risk even more to involve the opposition forces in his plan.
In December 1976, the PSOE celebrated its 27th Congress in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, and began to disassociate itself from the demands of the PCE, affirming that it would participate in the next call for elections for the Constituent Cortes. In the beginning of 1977, the year of the elections, Suárez decided to confront the problem of legalizing the PCE. After the public indignation lifted by the Massacre of Atocha
1977 Massacre of Atocha
The 1977 Massacre of Atocha was a neo-fascist attack during the Spanish transition to democracy after the death of Franco in 1975, killing five and injuring four...
in January 1977 against trade-unionists and Communists, Suárez decided to talk with PCE secretary general Santiago Carrillo
Santiago Carrillo
Santiago Carrillo Solares is a Spanish politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain from 1960 to 1982.- Childhood and early youth :...
in February. Carrillo's willingness to collaborate without prior demands and his offer of a "social pact" for the period after the elections pushed Suárez to take the riskiest step of the transition: the legalization of the PCE in April 1977. However, throughout this critical period the government began a strategy of providing greater institutional space to the Unión General de Trabajadores
Unión General de Trabajadores
The Unión General de Trabajadores is a major Spanish trade union, historically affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party .-History:...
(UGT) Socialist union in comparison to the then Communist-oriented CCOO. The manner in which a unified trade union was strategically countered is an important feature of the Spanish transition as it limited radical opposition and created the basis for a fractured industrial relations system.
Relations of the Suárez government with the army
Adolfo Suárez knew well that the "BúnkerBúnker
The term búnker refers to a far-right faction during the Spanish transition to democracy. The group of hardline francoists opposed political and social reform; the group's steadfast refusal to compromise led to the name of "bunker." Under the presidency of Carlos Arias Navarro, búnker and its...
"—a group of hard-line Francoists led by José Antonio Girón
José Antonio Girón
José Antonio Girón de Velasco was a prominent Spanish Falangist politician. He was minister of Labor , counselor of the Kingdom's Council and member of the Cortes Generales...
and Blas Piñar
Blas Piñar
Blas Piñar is a Spanish politician. He has had connections with Catholic organizations; directed the Institute of Spanish Culture and served as deputy in the Cortes and a councillor of the Movimiento Nacional.In the 1960s, Blas Piñar was in charge of the Institute of Spanish Culture that was...
, using the newspapers El Alcázar
El Alcázar
El Alcázar was a Spanish far-right newspaper founded in 1936 . The paper was founded as the principal nationalist mouthpiece during the Siege of the Alcázar in homage to the defenders of the Alcázar of Toledo ....
and Arriba
Arriba (newspaper)
Arriba was a Spanish daily newspaper. It was founded in Madrid 21 March 1935 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera as the official weekly newspaper of the Spanish Falange. On 5 March 1936 it was suspended by the government of the Second Spanish Republic. The suspension continued through the Spanish...
as their mouthpieces— had close contacts with officials in the army and exercised influence over important sectors of the military. These forces could constitute an insurmountable obstacle if they brought about military intervention against political reform.
To resolve the issue, Suárez intended to support himself with a liberal group within the military, centered on General Díez Alegría. Suárez decided to give the members of this group the positions of authority with the most responsibility. The most notable personality of this faction within the army was General Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado
Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado
Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado, 1st Marquis of Gutiérrez Mellado was a Spanish general and government minister. Appointed Chief of Staff of the Spanish Army in June 1976, Gutiérrez Mellado served as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain from September 21, 1976 to February 26, 1981, holding the Defence...
. But in July 1976, the Vice President for Defense Affairs was General Fernando de Santiago, a member of a hardline group within the army. De Santiago had shown his restlessness before, during the first amnesty in July 1976. He had opposed the law granting the right to unionize. Suárez dismissed Fernando de Santiago and nominated instead Gutiérrez Mellado. This confrontation with General de Santiago caused a large part of the army to oppose Suárez, an opposition that further intensified when the PCE was legalized.
Meanwhile, Gutiérrez Mellado promoted officials who supported political reform and removed those commanders of security forces (Policía Armada and the Guardia Civil) who seemed to support preserving the Francoist regime.
Suárez wanted to demonstrate to the army that the political normalization of the country meant neither anarchy nor revolution. In this, he counted on the collaboration of Santiago Carrillo, but he could in no way count on the collaboration of terrorist groups.
Resurgence of terrorist activity
The Basque Country remained, for the better part of this period, in a state of political turbulence. Suárez granted a multi-stage amnesty for numerous Basque political prisoners, but the confrontations continued between local police and protesters. The ETAETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
, which in the summer of 1976 seemed open to a limited truce after Franco's death, resumed armed confrontation again in October. 1978–1980 would be ETA's three deadliest years ever. But it was between December 1976 and January 1977 when a series of attacks brought about a situation of high tension in Spain.
The Maoist GRAPO (Grupos de Resistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre) began its armed struggle by bombing public locations, and then continued with the kidnapping of two important figures of the regime: the President of the Council of the State José María de Oriol, and General Villaescusa, President of the Superior Council of the Military Justice. From the right, during these kidnappings, members of the neo-fascist Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista murdered six members of the PCE
1977 Massacre of Atocha
The 1977 Massacre of Atocha was a neo-fascist attack during the Spanish transition to democracy after the death of Franco in 1975, killing five and injuring four...
, five of them labor lawyers, in an office on Atocha Street in Madrid in January 1977.
In the midst of these provocations, Suárez convened his first meeting with a significant number of opposition leaders, who published a condemnation of terrorism and gave their support to Suárez's actions. During this turbulent time, the Búnker capitalized on the instability and declared that the country was on the brink of chaos.
Despite the increased violence by the ETA and GRAPO, elections for the Constituent Cortes were carried out in June 1977.
First elections and the draft of the Constitution
Spanish general election, 1977
The Spanish general election of 1977 took place on 15 June 1977. It was the first election since the death of Francisco Franco.Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The elections were held using closed list proportional representation in 52 electoral districts...
that were held on June 15, 1977, confirmed the existence of four important political forces at the national level. The votes broke down in the following manner:
- Union of the Democratic CenterDemocratic Center Union (Spain)The Union of the Democratic Centre was an electoral coalition, and later political party, in Spain, existing from 1977 to 1983, and initially led by Adolfo Suárez.-History:...
(UCD, Unión de Centro Democrático): 34.61% - Spanish Socialist Workers' PartySpanish Socialist Workers' PartyThe Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
(PSOE, Partido Socialista Obrero Español): 29.27% - Communist Party of Spain (PCE, Partido Comunista de España): 9.38%
- Popular AlliancePopular Alliance (Spain)The People's Alliance was a electoral coalition, and later a political party, founded in 1976 by Manuel Fraga along with six other former Francoist ministers.- History :...
(AP, Alianza Popular): 8.33%
With the success of the Basque Nationalist Party
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...
(PNV, Partido Nacionalista Vasco) and the Democratic Pact for Catalonia (PDC, Pacte Democrátic per Catalunya) in their respective regions, nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
parties also began to show their political strength in these elections.
Constituent Cortes
Constituent Cortes is the description of Spain's parliament, the Cortes, when convened as a constituent assembly.In the 20th century, only one Constituent Cortes was officially opened , and that was the Republican Cortes in 1931.The Cortes in 1977 enacted the new Spanish constitution...
(elected Spanish parliament) began to draft a constitution in the summer of 1977. In 1978 the Moncloa Pact was passed: an agreement amongst politicians, political parties, and trade unions to plan how to operate the economy during the transition. The Spanish Constitution of 1978
Spanish Constitution of 1978
-Structure of the State:The Constitution recognizes the existence of nationalities and regions . Preliminary Title As a result, Spain is now composed entirely of 17 Autonomous Communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy, to the extent that, even though the Constitution...
went on to be approved in a referendum on the December 6, 1978.
Governments of the UCD
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
with other political parties.
The government spent much of its time from 1979 working to hold together the many tendencies within the party itself, as well as their coalitions. In 1980, the Suárez government had for the most part accomplished its goals of transition to democracy and lacked a further clear agenda. Many UCD members were fairly conservative and did not want further change. For example, a bill to legalize divorce caused much dissension inside the UCD, in spite of being supported by the majority of the populace . The UCD coalition fell apart.
The clashes among the several tendencies inside the party eroded Suárez's authority and his role as leader. The tension exploded in 1981: Suárez resigned as the head of government, and Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo
Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo
Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo y Bustelo, 1st Marquis of the Ría of Ribadeo and Grandee of Spain was a Spanish political figure and prime minister during the period of transition after the end of Francisco Franco's regime.-Biography:...
was appointed, first to lead the new cabinet and later to the presidency of the UCD; social democrats led by Francisco Fernández Ordóñez
Francisco Fernández Ordóñez
Francisco Fernández Ordóñez was a Spanish politician who became Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party government of Felipe González from 1985 until shortly before his death from a terminal illness in 1992...
defected from the coalition.
While the democratic normalization had succeeded in convincing ETA (pm), the "political-military" faction of ETA, to abandon arms and enter parliamentary politics, it did not stop the continuation of terrorist attacks by ETA (m) ("ETA Military"; later simply "ETA"), and, to a lesser extent, by GRAPO. Meanwhile, restlessness in various sections of the armed forces created fear of an impending military coup. The attempted coup known as 23-F
23-F
23-F was an attempted coup d'état in Spain that began on 23 February 1981 and ended on the following day. It is also known as El Tejerazo from the name of its most visible figure, Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup's most notable event: the bursting into the Spanish Congress of Deputies by a...
, in which Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero
Antonio Tejero
Antonio Tejero Molina is a Spanish former Lieutenant Colonel of the Guardia Civil, and the most visible figure in the attempted coup d'état – also known as the 'Tejerazo' – against the Spanish democracy on 23 February 1981....
led an occupation by a group of Guardia Civil of the Congress of Deputies
Spanish Congress of Deputies
The Spanish Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. It has 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation in constituencies matching the Spanish provinces using the D'Hondt method. Deputies serve four-year terms...
on the afternoon of 23 February 1981 failed, but demonstrated the existence of insurrectionary elements within the army.
The PSOE in government
Calvo Sotelo dissolved parliament and called elections for October 1982. In the 1979 election the UCD had achieved a plurality, but in 1982 it suffered a spectacular defeat. The electionsSpanish general election, 1982
General elections were held in Spain on 28 October 1982.PSOE and PSC presented two different lists of candidates: with the PSOE contesting most of Spain and the PSC only standing in Catalonia...
gave an absolute majority to the PSOE, which had already spent many years preparing its image of an alternative government.
In the 28th Congress of the PSOE (May 1979), secretary-general Felipe González resigned rather than ally with the strong revolutionary elements that seemed to dominate the party. A special congress was called that September, and realigned the party along more moderate lines, renouncing Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and allowing González to take charge once more.
Throughout 1982, the PSOE confirmed its moderate orientation and brought in the social democrats who had just broken from the UCD.
Winning an absolute majority in parliament in two consecutive elections (1982 and 1986), and exactly half the seats in 1989, allowed the PSOE to legislate and govern without establishing pacts with the other parliamentary political forces. In this way, the PSOE could make laws to achieve the goals of its political program, "el cambio" ("the change"). At the same time, the PSOE led many local and regional administrations. This comfortable political majority allowed the PSOE to give the country a long period of tranquility and stability, after the intense years of the transition.
See also
- Spanish society after the democratic transitionSpanish society after the democratic transitionAfter the restoration of democracy in the late 1970s, the changes in everyday Spanish life were as radical as the political transformation. They are famously known as the La Movida...
- 1977 Massacre of Atocha1977 Massacre of AtochaThe 1977 Massacre of Atocha was a neo-fascist attack during the Spanish transition to democracy after the death of Franco in 1975, killing five and injuring four...
- Portuguese transition to democracyPortuguese transition to democracyPortugal's experience with democracy before the Carnation Revolution of 1974 had not been particularly successful. Its First Republic lasted only sixteen years, from 1910 to 1926. Under the republic, parliamentary institutions worked poorly and were soon discredited. Political corruption and...
- MetapolitefsiMetapolitefsiThe Metapolitefsi was a period in Greek history after the fall of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 that includes the transitional period from the fall of the dictatorship to the Greek legislative elections of 1974 and the democratic period immediately after these elections.The long...