The legalization of the Communist Party during the Transition: A new approach

Authors

  • Jorge Urdánoz Ganuza

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.208.07

Abstract

The article argues that the Atocha murders have been exaggerated in explaining Suarez’s decision to legalize the PCE. The then-secret cables from the United States Ambassador to Spain provide three novel pieces of evidence. Firstly, that the decision was surely made earlier. Secondly, Brandt and the European social democracy did not raise any objections to the possibility of Suarez keeping the PCE illegal. Thirdly, the relevance of economic motives, which would later culminate in the Moncloa Pacts, in the decision to legalize. In addition to this, the historiography generated by the legalization is used to compare two ways of looking at the past, the novelistic and
the rigorous.

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Published

2025-06-18

How to Cite

Urdánoz Ganuza , J. (2025). The legalization of the Communist Party during the Transition: A new approach. Revista De Estudios Políticos, (208), 199–230. https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.208.07

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Section

ARTICLES