José M. Murià: Spain returns to its old ways

D.

and all three By far the longest lasting major European fascist governments was that of Spain. In Germany and Italy both their Führer and their Duce met a relatively early and bloody end. Only in Spain did it last almost four decades, and it can be said that both its spirit and many political and social elements, in some places more than in others, have survived the death of its leader by the grace of God.

On the one hand, I remember that in the 1990s, in certain places like Salamanca, Zamora, Valladolid, etc., he was devoutly remembered and ostentatious monuments honoring his memory were erected. There was even plenty of evidence that his Popular Party was nothing more than a disguised prolongation of Francoism. It has become clear, for example, that his Supreme Court is a veritable cave of less and less concealed Francoists.

Such longevity, in one sense or another, led many to think that such an ideology was endemic to what some call the deep spain or the very heart of Spanishness.

There was no shortage of those who left with the pretense that a true democracy could be consolidated step by step, respectful of its many internal differences and of the foreign rightBut it has not been that way.

In 1977, a constitution was promulgated that seemed to open up the possibilities of modernizing the antiquated conception of society that prevailed in that State and the lack of respect for differences, but the reality is that it he turned the squeaker for the stick. From then on, instead of the much-vaunted Constitution improving, the truth is that it proceeded to take many steps backwards, backed by the current Franco regime.

It seems true what Josep Pla, a costumbrista and gourmet writer, quite linked to the Franco regime, who claimed that the closest thing to a right-wing Spaniard was a left-wing Spaniard… or what could be said that Francoism forms an intrinsic part of a nationality in which there are no differences that advocate for greater social justice.

Step by step, Francoism, fascism, Falangism or whatever you want to call it is gaining ground and now it has taken off its mask in the political arena and, coordinated with its fraternal Popular Party, the emerging Vox, is already showing signs of its vitality.

Its imperial vocation to put its nose back into America is even emerging and it is casting tentacles in its different countries, where there is no shortage of sympathizers of that type of Spanishness among the most gachupinophiles that are so harmful, in all aspects, to our countries.

Mexico is a main objective, because of its importance, because it contains material for such purposes and, above all, because they want to remove the thorn of the great damage done to it by defending many thousands of Spaniards in France, and also in Portugal. Republicans, a huge number of whom found asylum in our country, and also refusing to recognize Franco’s dictatorial government.

Unfortunately, among his descendants there is no shortage of those who now show sympathy for Spanish neo-fascism and are playing along with it.