Europeism as a weapon of opposition to Francoism (1956-1962)

Authors

  • Jesús M. Zaratiegui Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona)

Keywords:

Franco’s regime, Europe, internal opposition, European Movement

Abstract

The lack of freedom on political expression and association in Franco’s Spain meant that the main internal opposition parties encountered many difficulties to develop its activities. This article focus on one of the loopholes that they found to sort out such difficulty: to hoist the flag of «europeism» in order to be able of maintaining the contact with the opposition groups in exile, and to receive political and financial support by its European partners. The franquist government had left this hole after recognizing already in the forties the political impossibility for a fascist regime to fit into the new Europe, built on the basis of respect for the person’s fundamental rights. In this regard it plays a pivotal role the European Movement which was the protective umbrella of the activities of its Spanish branch, the AECE, about that most of this first opposition groups agglutinated. The government tolerance with this soft opposition groups broke since the meeting in Munich (1962), considered a provocation by the Spanish authorities and a hidden attempt to search the reconciliation with those who has lost the civil war. The exile or confinement of the most prominent leaders froze at all this incipient democratic opposition. It was necessary to wait five years to find again these groups, now led by the new parties inspired in the socialist or communist ideology. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Jesús M. Zaratiegui , Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona)

Profesor Titular de Historia e Instituciones Económicas, Facultad de CCEE

Published

2015-10-01

Issue

Section

STUDIES

Metrics