SPAIN: Restiveness on the Right

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A Franco rally and an abortive plot stir concern for democracy

The renaissance of the life and spirit of Spain, much like a fresh spring that follows a long and miserable winter, began on Nov. 20, 1975. On that day, Francisco Franco died, and on that day began the flowering of Spanish democracy.

That this fragile shoot requires watchful nurturing was dramatized last week when 150,000 shouting Spaniards flooded Madrid's Plaza de Oriente to pay tribute to the late dictator Franco on the third anniversary of his death. Blue-shirted members of the Fuerza Nueva (New Force), an extreme right-wing group, marched to the site in military formation and mingled with grizzled Civil War veterans and youths with Nazi swastika armbands. Others who crowded into the square were simply ordinary conservatives, nostalgic for days long gone when life seemed more disciplined and predictable.

FRANCO GAVE US PEACE, JUSTICE AND WORK, proclaimed one of the many signs held aloft by demonstrators. Waiting for the ceremonies to begin, the crowd began to chant, "You notice it! You can feel it! Franco is here!" Then the Spanish national anthem boomed over the loudspeakers, and the Franquistas snapped to attention and put their palms forward in the straight-arm Fascist salute. Bias Piñar, 60, a former Franco appointee to the Cortes and now the leading activist of Spain's diehard rightists, stepped forward from his place beside the dictator's 52-year-old daughter Carmen.

"When the leaders of a people commit treason," shouted Piñar, "the people with the force of right and the right of force should prevent themselves from continually being gagged, blamed, spat on, impoverished and murdered!" Lest anyone fail to get the message, Piñar told a news conference, "The situation in Spain justifies a national insurrection." The rally ended peacefully enough, but to supporters of Spain's fledgling democracy, the calls for an uprising reverberated frighteningly.

At that very moment, as it happened, Spanish officials were investigating an abortive plot to overthrow the democratic government of Premier Adolfo Suárez and bring back authoritarian rule. The conspiracy, code-named Operation Galaxia after the café in which it was hatched, involved five officers in the paramilitary Civil Guard, the National Police and the army. Although details were sketchy, the plans apparently called for sympathetic members of the police to besiege Moncloa Palace, the seat of government, hold Suárez hostage and install their own people in power. The target date: Nov. 17, the day King Juan Carlos was scheduled to leave for a two-week tour of Latin America.

The plot was thwarted when loyal officers got wind of it and warned Suárez. By nightfall on Nov. 16, a 100-man special operations force had moved into position to protect the palace, and Suárez had called in all his top military and police commanders and Defense Ministry officials. Meanwhile, two of the suspected plotters and a dissident general were arrested.