Ramón Tamames: Memories to remember

Chance has a greater or lesser influence on daily events, but in this case we can say that at the minute of Franco’s death, at 5 a.m. on November 20, 1975, everything was tied up and well put together, according to the outgoing head of state. A few hours later, Juan Carlos I was proclaimed king of Spain by the Spanish Cortes, with all the powers that Franco had had to do and undo. What was I going to do with it? Everything had to remain the same: there was not much good in what was linked, and everything or a lot was going to depend on what the heir of the author of the Memoirs would do.

In this sense and at these times, we can say that the first great success of the very young monarch was to be prudent. There was no question of immediately changing the head of government, thus leaving Carlos Arias Navarro in his high office, knowing that such a Francoist figure was a determined supporter of continuity, even more than Luis Carrero Blanco himself who had preceded him, who died in an ETA attack on December 20, 1973. Even the presence of Manuel Fraga in the Arias government did not provide a basis for thinking about the preparation of a limited reform, as he certified to out loud. declarations: “the street is mine” and “I set the timing”.

Hence the wisest reaction of the young king: to make himself known to all his so-called supporters with continuous trips through Spain and a kind of important international consecration, in June 1976 in the United States, where he was the guest of President Gerald Ford, and especially of his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who so closely followed the actions of Juan Carlos in his political complex. The result of this reinforced presence among his new supporters increased the king’s popularity. His numerous revelations to the whole world convinced Arias, so that he had no choice but to resign on July 1, 1976.

Who would be the new president of the government? The king himself had already planned it, with the conciliar help of his master and friend, Professor Torcuato Fernández-Miranda, his long-time tutor and advisor. The king asked Torcuato: “Which do you prefer immediately, to be president of the government once Arias leaves or president of the Cortes?” Moreover, this last position will be elected very soon by the Kingdom Council due to its mandatory deadlines. “President of the Cortes, Your Majesty, without a doubt – replied Torcuato –. In order to apply our great principle of right to right by right, we are not going to do anything illegal. »

And this was done, completely legally, at the Council of the Kingdom, and without further difficulty, the position of President of the Cortes came to Torcuato, who was now able, in his turn, to have all the means to appoint the President of the Government, from the shortlist that he himself had designed. Made up of three people: the first, Federico Silva Muñoz – who had been the “minister of efficiency” of Public Works under Franco –; Gregorio López Bravo – brilliant Minister of Industry also to the Generalissimo – and as a third party, an almost unknown party sponsored by the king himself, a Jesantonian politician, who was definitively elected to preside over the government.

The aforementioned trio has already been able to launch its definitive plan, formulated in its political reform project, drawn up by Torcuato. On the political basis of a new fundamental law of the National Movement, which will be drawn up by the Spanish Cortes. Well, Franco’s six fundamental laws could only be repealed by another law of the same tone. Thus was written the law containing Cortes, a Congress of Deputies, a Senate, fundamental freedoms, rights and duties, etc. It was submitted to the vote of the Francoist Cortes on November 18, 1976, with the result of 425 votes for and 106 against the project. A more than favorable result, which did not hesitate to be described as harakiri, the Japanese word designating the self-destruction of something to achieve a goal. The new law was defended by two lawyers linked to the trio, Miguel Primo de Rivera – grandson of the dictator in Spain between 1923 and 1930 – and Fernando Suárez, Franco’s former labor minister and Leonese lawyer on behalf of his good friend Don Torcuato. The defense of Francoism was led by the anachronistic lawyer Blas Piñar. Once the political reform law was approved, the legalization of political parties was an immediate and decisive issue; the most discussed, that of the Spanish Communist Party. It can be said that the assassination by the worst law of the five labor lawyers on Atocha Street in Madrid, with their immense burial, on January 26, 1976, was the last push for such legalization. The king, with Suárez at his side, flew over this great sadness from a helicopter.

Thus, the iter projected by Juan Carlos I in his mind, according to him, became a reality with Torcuato presiding over the Cortes, the approval of the political reform law in the Cortes, and all this was followed by the general elections of June 15, 1977.

In short, we can say that in the trips mentioned above, from 1973 to June 1977, the most difficult part of the transition was overcome, including everything that King Juan Carlos I tells us today in his Memoirs. In addition to all the importance that the positions of underground democratic parties had until very recently. As well as the union pressure from unions like the UGT, CC.OO., etc., without forgetting the movement in the streets, whose sadness for the lawyers of Atocha was the symbol of something much greater which could have worked differently, if a moderating vision in search of democracy, fleeing the disruptive extremes, had not flourished.

Naturally, this article does not aim to cover everything that the Transition was, but rather to define its broad outlines. In a way, we agree with the author of the book mentioned, that the role of king played by Franco contributed in an essential way to changing the political, economic and social structure of Spain, in favor of a democracy with which we would all emerge from many miseries by our own strength. In this sense, another day had to be devoted to the relations of Juan Carlos with his designate, Franco. Such a king cannot end his days in a situation of exile and defamation in many cases. It must be recognized that what the memoirist did was a lot, and with a lot of risk at every moment. Finally find a path to democracy that can never be abandoned, in defense of the 1978 Constitution.