Last week marked 50 years since the death of Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator of Spain from the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975. How does a democracy handle the legacy of one so infamous yet so revered?
The current Workers Socialist Party of President Pedro Sanchez has deployed government officials to dissuade young Spaniards (who were born since Franco’s death) not to honor the fascist dictator. Meanwhile, these same young people (who resemble MAGA) regard the Franco years as a golden age of Spain’s greatness. And their dream of returning to a fascist state is very much alive.
Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal got in on the act. No surprise, NYT treated the situation in Spain as something to dread. For its part, WSJ in the column of Tunku Varadarajan cited Stanley G. Payne, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, who affirmed the sentiments of Spanish youth who insist the Franco era marked years of prosperity.
Who is right and who is wrong? The answer is simple: Both are right and both are wrong.
Franco was a brutal fascist who locked up masses of dissidents in Spain, thousands of whom did not survive. And let me say at this point that a return to fascism in Spain is anything but desirable.
On the other hand, critics of Franco have little command of the facts. For instance, the NYT story stated that Franco was an ally of Hitler. This is false. Spain under Franco was neutral during World War II. Moreover, Franco shared crucial intelligence with the Allies fighting Nazi Germany, and to an extent greater than other countries, provided sanctuary to Jewish refugees fleeing the Third Reich.
Though Franco jailed a segment of the clergy, he did much to save the Catholic Church in Spain (which was under siege from the left, who were dominated by Stalin’s communists). Indeed, George Orwell himself, a socialist who fought against the fascists in Spain, was disillusioned with the left in Spain due to its Stalinist influence. It’s even arguable that “Animal Farm,” Orwell’s most celebrated book next to 1984, may well have been a parody of revolutionary Spain, as the pigs in “Animal Farm” would eventually befriend the human slave owners. The tale is considered by most to be a parody of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia earlier in the 20th century. But the Orwell novella has as many parallels to Spain as it has to Russia.
Professor Payne is too enthusiastic about the Franco legacy. But he is right to conclude that had the fascists lost the civil war in Spain, Western Europe would be the location of a Soviet satellite state. Remember, as well, that at this time in Europe, Stalin and Hitler were allies by way of a nonaggression pact, which guaranteed Poland to be split between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.
As for prosperity, the left does not like to accept the basic truth that Franco lifted Spain from a backward cesspool to a thriving capitalist economy. Of course, the political right is just as slow to accept the reality that Stalin lifted Russia, a god-forsaken mass of poverty, to a nuclear power and a player in the space age.
But just as Stalin bestowed a brutal legacy, so too did Franco. Sanchez is an inept leftist. It’s also worth mentioning that Sanchez is the most anti-Israel world leader outside the Middle East. This still hardly justifies a return to a regime emulating Franco. Spain was admitted into NATO in 1986 largely due to its assurance that fascism was in its past.
Doubtful President Donald Trump would dissuade Spain from a return to a Franco-like regime. He is unmoved by the specter of Vladimir Putin of Russia and considers Xi Jinping of China a friend. Democracy isn’t a priority for President Trump. But woe is us should fascism resurrect itself in Western Europe.
John O’Neill is an Allen Park freelance writer and a graduate of Wayne State University.
