Generalísimo Francisco Franco is still dead

That was a recurring line on the first season of Saturday Night Live for weeks after the Spanish dictator died. Like a lot of edgy humor, it seems a little odd out of context. I think the idea was that Franco had ruled in Spain since the 1930s, so that it seemed like he was around forever. Plus, he was one of the nastier figures on the European scene, so friends of democracy were not sorry to see him depart this mortal plane. Wikipedia has some details.

It was 30 years ago on Sunday, Nov. 20, that Franco died. A new democracy in Spain was soon set up, whic is healthy and thriving.

He still has his admirers. Some of them took the occasion to commemorate him. Others to think about the implications of dictatorship: El aniversario de la muerte de Francisco Franco ha estado más presente en los medios que en la callede Jóse Asenjo El Mundo/EFE 20.11.05. The El Mundo home page has a photo accompanying the headline showing a group of Franco fans giving the fascist salute, or what in Germany they call the "Hitler greeting" (the stiff-armed salute).

An memorial mass was held in the basilica at the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen) monument. Asenjo reports that 6,000 people attended this year, which was 2,000 less than the year before. Franco was a reactionary Catholic who led a revolt against the Spanish Republic in 1936, which produced the Spanish Civil War, which lasted until 1939.


Known as El Caudillo, or the Leader, Franco's Falangist movement received assistance from Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany in its fight against Spanish democracy. The Soviet Union actively supported the Republic, and organized the International Brigades for volunteers from many countries to fight for it. The USSR regarded Hitler Germany as a threat and preferred to see a victory for a "bourgeois democracy" in Spain than a fascist takeover. Almost all the Soviet officials who took an active part in the war in Spain were later purged.

The current Social Democratic government has encouraged wider discussion of the events of the Civil War period.

The Valle de los Caídos monument where the annual pro-Franco mass is held is described as follows from the art history site of Mary Ann Sullivan:

The monument is an underground church and tomb topped with a 500 foot stone cross, which can be seen from a distance of 30 miles. Although supposedly honoring all the dead in the Spanish Civil war, only two names are commemorated, those of General Francisco Franco and of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange (and safely dead before the mausoleum was started). Most critics see this gargantuan memorial, not as a mode of post-civil war reconciliation, but rather of Fascist theatricality. And we are often reminded that prisoners on the Republican side, many of whom lost their lives in the process, were forced to quarry this huge cavern out of the rock.

Not that Franco has such a great image among the Spanish public generally. The public image of El Caudillo has declined significantly in the last five years: La opinión sobre Francisco Franco empeora 13 puntos en los últimos cinco años El Mundo 19.11.05. According to this report, younger Spaniards tend to have an unfavorable view of Franco, regardless of their political ideology.

Fifty-one percent rate Franco as "bad" or "very bad", an increase of 13% since 2000. The average was notably dragged down by the over-65 respondents, only 32% of whom rated the dictator in one of those two categories. At least half of younger age groups rated him in one of those two.

Not surprisingly, supporters of the Social Democrats (PSOE) and the United Left (IU) have a much larger negative opinion of Franco than supporters of the conservative Partido Popular (PP). The PP was the successor party to Franco's Falangists, although it is generally regarded now as a legitimate democratic conservative party.

Interestingly enough, when more generic questions were asked like, Qas Franco a dictator? or Were human rights respected under Franco?, the opinions come out much more negatively. I don't exactly know how to interpret that. I guess some percentage could be thinking, "yeah, he was a dictator and that's a good thing". But somehow it seems that Franco as a person has a better image than the political system he led.

See also:

Pulsómetro especial franquismo Cadena SER 18.11.05. Shows results of a different survey, which found among other things that 64% of the people consider Franco's dictatorship to have been bad for Spain.

En busca de la memoria histórica El Mundo 18.11.05. Mentions that some activists on behalf of Franco's victims want to establish a memorial to the victims at the Valle de los Caídos monument.

Un millar de simpatizantes de Franco conmemoran en Madrid el 30 aniversario de su muerte: Blas Piñar ensalza su figura y el consejero nacional de La Falange llama terroristas a los musulmanes Cadena SER 18.11.05. A demonstration of around 1,000 Franco admirers in Madrid gathered to hear rants against Muslim immigrants. El Caudillo would have been proud. A Reuters report puts the turnout at 2,000.

Wikipedia article on El Caudillo: Francisco Franco.

Thousands attend Mass for Franco Miami Herald 11/20/05.

Silence over Franco broken by new Spanish generation by Giles Tremlett London Observer 11/20/05.

Spanish Mass marks Franco death: Thousands of people have attended a Mass at the burial site of Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco to mark the 30th anniversary of his death BBC News 11/20/05. Includes a photo of a corpulent admirer paying homage to El Caudillo with a fascist salute.

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