Whither Spain now?

Press, 26 July 1976, Page 16

Whither Spain now?

The recent appointment of Mr Adolfo Suarez as Prime Minister of Spain suggests that policies of political reform are still to be subject to strict control by General Franco’s heirs in the Council of the Realm, the authoritarian institution which he founded. Many Spaniards — including those loyal to the monarchy — are questioning the motives of King Juan Carlos in making his choice. His abrupt dismissal of Mr Carlos Arias was understandable. His dislike of Mr Arias had long been obvious: as an ardent believer in the principles of Franco’s absolutist creed, he had no enthusiasm for democratic reform, towards which the country seemed at last to be moving. Nor was he prepared to co-operate with the parties of the Opposition, loosely joined in an organisation known as Co-ordina-cion Democratica, whose leader. Antonio Garcia Trevijano. had been gaoled when it issued a statement rejecting the monarchy. Treviano is now free again, but his movement has almost ceased to function as a united Opposition. Mr Suarez, aged 43. is a personal friend of the 38-year-old King Juan Carlos. The choice of a new Prime Minister looked almost as if the King were seeking to protect his own position, not by repudiating reform but by ensuring that the pace would be as slow as possible. Whatever his reasons, the reaction, even among his trusted advisers, was startling. The Foreign Minister, Mr Jose-Maria de Areilza, who had dedicated himself to returning a democratically governed Spain to the European community, refused to serve under Mr Suarez, as did half a dozen other Ministers Mr Areilza, indeed, had confidently expected the Council of the Realm to include his name among the three to be submitted to the King for his guidance. It did nothing of the

kind. The proposals for constitutional change would replace most of the nominated members of the council with elected members: and those already firmly established were not risking getting themselves thrown out. The parties of the Left were dismayed by the rejection of Mr Areilza, whom they regarded as the one man in the previous Government they could have worked with. In the event, after the rush of resignations, Mr Suarez found himself embarrassingly short of Cabinet material. A month before his appointment he had been hailing the birth of Spain as “ a modern democracy ”. He had been active in support of a new law legalising all political parties (the Communists are still banned), and since his appointment he has given an assurance that the promised reforms will go through. The programme of the previous Government had been only about one-third completed. Now all seems to be in the melting-pot once more. Where Mr Areilza had undertaken to include a Catalan and a Basque in any government he might be asked to form, Mr Suarez has surrounded himself largely with political second-rankers, sadly lacking in the experience needed to ease regional tensions and to drag Spain from the economic morass into which it has been sinking.

The problem of inflation has yet to be tackled, as have the problems of a large balance-of-payments deficit and increasing unemployment. It is noticeable, moreover, that Army leaders still fill key Cabinet posts. If the new Cabinet shows itself incapable of coping with a deteriorating economic situation and silencing the sounds of recurring student unrest, the Armed Forces might still consider transferring government to their own leadership.