Franco’s ghost still haunts Spain

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 21

Franco’s ghost still haunts Spain

From

LUIS CARLINO,

Reuter, in Madrid

A year after winning power in a landslide election victory, Spain’s ruling Socialists have firmly established -themselves as' a moderate social democratic governfnent, confident of a long spell in office. Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, aged 41, has emerged as a strong leader capable of administering unpopular medicine since his party’s victory on October 28,1982. Although the Socialists’ cautious economic policies risk alienating their traditional Left-wing base, their pragmatism has deprived the Right-wing opposition of political arguments. Even so, the ghosts of Spain’s past still surface in tension with the military and resistance to dismantling the last remnants of 40 years of rule under the late dictator, Francisco Franco. Faced with double-digit inflation and high unemployment, Gonzalez has managed to avoid traumatic policy shifts by appointing Social Democrat Miguel Boyer as Economy Minister. A tight monetary policy has brought inflation down to about 12 per cent from 14 per cent last year — with a further four-point drop targeted for 1984 — and a budget recently submitted to Parliament aims at a half-point reduction in the deficit’s current proportion of 6 . BCrcent of gross national product jFThe Government’s, announced inW&tion to keep 1984 wage increases

1.5 points below inflation has been welcomed by the conservative business community. The expropriation in February of Rumasa, Spain’s largest private holding company, on the grounds that its collapse was imminent, has been accepted as an emergency measure that does not imply a departure from the socialist programme which only contemplated the nationalisation of the power grid. The legal procedure for the takeover — a royal decree followed by a law passed by Parliament — was challenged by,, the main opposition Popular Alliance before the constitutional tribunal, which is expected to give a ruling in the next few months. The rightist A.P. has announced it will also take the Government to court over two controversial laws relaxing stiff Franco-era’ regulations and increasing State control over mainly church-owned subsidised private schools. Political commentators of all shades of opinion agree that the Alliance leader, Manuel Fraga, oscillating between populist, appeals and open support for sabre-rattling military officers, has been unable to formulate a Bear alternative to

the Government’s policies and predict a new Socialist victory in elections in 1986.

However, there is pressure outside Parliament, from workers unwilling to go along with austerity measures, sectors of the armed forces still apparently unreconciled to democracy, and from the conservative church.

Marcelino Camacho, leader of the Communist-controlled Workers’ Commissions Labour Union, says that despite Government assurances the election promise to create 800,000 new jobs to alleviate the current 17 per cent unemployment rate has already been abandoned.

He says that. Spanish workers will not take cuts in real wages and relaxation.of the present rigid job stability regime without a firm policy of public investment to boost employment. Another potential conflict lies in the election promise to hold a referendum on last year's decision to join N.A.T.O. Gonzalez says it will not be' held before 1985 or while East-West tension remains high.

The Cabinet is openly split on the issue — the jKrime, Minister reportedly leaning-fyowards mem-

bership and his deputy, Alfonso Guerra, publicly opposing it — and polls show a solid 60 per cent of Spaniards against alignment with any power bloc.

Discontent within the armed forces — still led by the Rightwing officers who won the 1936-39 civil war and formed the backbone of the Franco regime — surfaced last month with the sacking of a top general, renewing fears of a coup.

There have been at least three military takeover plots since Franco died in 1975. Defence Minister Narcis Serra’s policy of taking military affairs away from the limelight succeeded in temporarily defusing the issue, but a magazine interview by the regional commander, LieutenantGeneral Fernando Soteras, ended the apparent honeymoon.

His call for the release of plotters jailed for a 1981 coup attempt led to his immediate sacking. His comments on the army’s right to seize power and his criticism of the Government’s approach to guerrilla violence revealed a gap between military thought and civilian perception of the rule of law.

Critics say the Government seems powerless or unwilling to break the rigid promotion system inherited from the Franco and changes in the authoritarian con-

tent of military education will take years to influence the senior hierarchy. “The Weakness of (former Prime Minister Leopoldo) Calvo Sotelo and now Felipe Gonzalez has led us to a situation where the armed forces are becoming a genuine autonomous power, and that should not exist in a democratic country,” says the Communist leader, Santiago Carrillo. “Taking advantage of provocations like separatist killings and flag burnings in the Basque country, this power grows and attempts to bypass the civilian power and decide the country’s policy.”

The Socialists’ polite relations with the church, another pillar of the Franco regime, have been soured by the abortion and education laws, and a row over the banning of school catechism texts equating abortion with terrorism and murder.

Gonzalez met Pope John Paul in Rome shortly after the abortion law was passed and Government officials sought to dismiss press reports describing their talk as chilly. Yet a few days later, the Pontiff reopened a potentially divisive issue by giving the go-ahead to Spanish bishops to resume the process of beatification — the first, step to sainthood — for clerics?’ killed in the Spanish civil war. ’