POST-FRANCO SPAIN POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK TO PRODUCE MORE REFORMS

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34103, 16 March 1976, Page 16

POST-FRANCO SPAIN POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK TO PRODUCE MORE REFORMS

HAROLD SIEVE.

(By

I. in Madrid, for the ’"Daily Telegraph")

(Reprinted by arrangement)

Like much of Spain’s character and most of her history, the first undred days of post-Franquism have proved, to put it mildly, predictable.

Certainly no revolution, no barricades across the Gran Via. Many ushed heads but only nine violent deaths. Yet the swiftly turning kaleidoscope has produced scenes unimaginable three short months ago.

Witness just a few. Bare breasts on the bookstalls. Striking policemen parading through Barcelona. Blocklong queues for “The Clockwork Orange,” and Socialist rallies in Bilbao. Raquel Welch in a transparent gown on a State-run telly. Communist leaders on the Madrid campus. Striptease in the nightclubs, rubber bullets in Sabadell, real ones in Elda. Teachers abandoning classrooms, miners the pits, drivers their lorries.

Early this month nearly 300,000 people were on strike throughout Spain — all illegally. A further 90,000 or so rail and postal workers, firemen and police have been forced back to their posts through military' control.

The Caudillo might well be turning in his grave. His living followers are certainly writhing with wrath in their “bunker.”

The change in Spain does appear to have two different sources and levels — the official and the real — a difference which has always delineated the two Spains. On the first, that of. King Juan Carlos and Government, the pace has been slow, only a partial lifting of the safety valve on the long-bubbling pressure cooker. On the second — in factories, offices, schools, universities, among the press, the arts, the intellectuals — the release of steam has taken on a momentum of its own which can no longer be confined.

A semblance of continuity had to be ensured to appease the powerful Rightwing and neutralise the Armed Forces. Thus the reappointment of a loyal Franco man, Mr Arias, as Prime Minister with a heterogeneous Cabinet — three or four genuine reformists, representatives of the old order, hawkish generals and so-called "technocrats” with no idealogy and differing views on how swiftly and to what degree democracy should be restored.

The Caudillo himself employed the same practice to balance one Establishment force against the other. Except that he was always there to make the final ruling. His successor intends to

stay aloof from the political melee as a symbol of national unity, to act as a constitutional monarch under an authoritarian system which, until it is radically altered, requires guidance and decision at the top. What official progress has been achieved has been largely due to the driving force of Manuel Fraga, the indefatigable Minister of the Interior backed by reformists such as Messrs Areilza and Garrigues in Foreign Affairs and Justice.

So the harsher teeth have been drawn from the Draconian anti-terrorist decree; a Bill drafted for freedom of assembly and demonstration; the projected legalisation of all political parties apart from Communists and Separatists; commissions to study more regional powers (though not autonomy) for Catalans and Basques; the removal of earlier film and theatre censorship. The accomplishments of the 100 days might well have been more substantial — “More facts, less promises,” as the Opposition chants — were is not for Ministerial differences over timing. Mr Arias and his conservatives seem to have at least won the procedural battle. Constitutional reforms have to be approved by a body jointly composed of Ministers and members of the Falangist National Council, with die-hard Rightwingers predominant. Another self-imposed obstacle is the decision to send practically all legislation, including urgent economic measures, to the Cortes rather than resorting as in the past to decrees. This parliamentary’ procedure would be admirable were it not that the Cortes, with its cumbersome, drawn-out methods, is a largely Franco-appointed assembly with only another 15 months to live. Different view Franco’s former faithful, like nearly everyone else in Spain today, are mouthing the word “democracy” as though born to it. A very different view is being voiced by those who for years opposed the dictatorship. They ask to be recognised, not merely tolerated: democracy is a right, not a concession — sweets to be slowly doled out to the good boys while the baddies (Communists especially) to without.

Seemingly of.its own volition, a political structure is taking shape with a speed and force surprisingly even to the Opposition. Political parties are operating openly. The Communist-led workers’ commissions have virtually taken over the official trade unions they had previously infiltrated.

The labour unrest is largely motivated by real economic causes as the international recession has hit Spain. But the strike movement revealed a vast appetite for the real participation so long denied the workers. What also emerged was civic sense and eschewal of violence — unexpected among a people

long reputed to be either anarchistic or bloodthirsty or both. The Opposition claims that apart from two killings by Basque terrorists in the north-west, violence has come solely from the riot police. “This would never have happened had the Government permitted a demonstration,” commented a Barcelona notel manager after running battles on two successive Sundays in the city centre. Behind the Catalan campaign for home rule are people (like the banker Jordi Pujol) and groups ranging from Centre-Right to extreme Left. Yet Mr Fraga described them as “dangerous elements” when asked to justify his ban — while allowing Basques, Andalusians and Galicians to demonstrate.

Eye on generals Mr Fraga, of course, has to keep a wary eye cocked over his shoulder at the Army. National unity and anti-communism are the sacred shibboleths of the generals. Though they profess to be above politics, any Government weakness on these two counts could bring military intervention. This, in ’ turn, is complicating Mr Fraga's hope of seeing three main political formations emerging before the general elections promised for next year: Right, Left and (around himself) Centre. Right and Centre groups are in process of gestation, though no natural leader has yet emerged along the pie thora of conservative groups including the Francopermitted “associations.” The problem of putting to gether a single counterbalancing force on the Left is proving more daunting, partly through the ideological and personality schisms it has always suffered, mainly because of the Government’s refusal to legalise the Communists. Many moderates contend that the Communists’ weakness would be exposed — as in Portugal — at the polls. Both Mr Fraga and Mr Areilza insist that the Communists cannot be trusted. This presents a serious dilemma for the mainstream Socialists and the Popular Socialist P.S.P. on their Left. The P.S.P. is part of the Communist-dominated democratic junta and both coalitions are seeking to work out a joint tactical programme. Their choice now is between accepting and profiting electorally from legitimacy or further splitting the Left, with the likelihood of losing militants to the underground Communists. The next 100 days should provide an answer. They might also show whether what Mr Fraga calls "an experiment in democracy” is likely to work. But further surprises are undoubtedly in store.

“No one can tell where Spain is heading,” remarked one political commentator. "Transition is always risky. The longer it takes, the more the dangers.”