Franco for President? February 21, 2010
Posted by espainisdifferent in History, Politics, Society and Media.trackback
We all know that nowadays Francisco Franco is no precisely as popular as Beyonce. But how popular was he in his time?
In our current society it can be observed that being Franquist is not something very trendy indeed. Neither for young people nor for older ones. But for me there is something very difficult to counter-argue, despite I do not have clear evidences, and it is that Francisco Franco Bahamonde enjoyed a great popularity in his time. In fact many were those who went to pay their respects when he died. And I do believe that this last good bye to the ruler was genuine and sincere. More than 30 years after this seems something of the past and Franco an accident of History that would never have happened. I agree with the second, but I reaffirm myself in what I said first.
And my belief is such that I think that if there were been held free democratic elections with all the guarantees Franco would have won for an smashing difference over other candidates. I know many people thing this is an aberration but if we want to be honest about the reality of that time we must acknowledge this. Franco was a ruler, Franco was a tyrant, Franco was a criminal but Franco had lot of popular support in his time.
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Of course he had a lot of popular support. Nobody rules for over forty years without it, dictatorship or not. Moreover, that’s what dictators are all about. Either they control the people that doesn’t support them by rule of force, or they make them love them by rule of misinformation.
Fidel Castro is as much loved as he is hated, or simply frowned upon, but there’s going to be a hell of a line to get to his coffin whe he’ll eventually die.
What I am trying to say is that it seems that nowadays nobody has anything to do with this gentleman. With this article I want to unmask this lie because it is very assumed by the majority of the people in Spain… and probably abroad
We’re living an era of globalization, where everything’s connected, where what happens on one country has deep connotations on the other side of the world. I suppose Franco’s figure’s not really accepted because (besides the obvious) it simbolizes a past, autarchic Spain, not really in tune with today’s expectations.
BTW, this post remembered me of that famous Monty Python’s scene from Life of Brian:
“But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”