Spain: El Caudillo’s Legacy

Even dictators face death, and on that certitude Spain’s Francisco Franco, 76 and ailing, has for months been fashioning a succession to his liking. Three months ago, he decreed the restoration of a constitutional monarchy after his death; at his direction, Spain’s Parliament designated bland, handsome Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón, 31, as eventual Chief of State. To ensure that the actual governing of Spain will be in expert hands, Franco has also been planning the Cabinet that he wants to leave in charge of the country. Last week, in the most important Cabinet changes in his 30 years of power, El Caudillo made known his choices.

Franco had two contending groups from which to choose. One was the Falange, the blue-shirted quasi-fascist organization that helped catapult him to power during the Civil War and has been a major source of his political strength ever since. The second is a shadowy group of technocrats who belong to or sympathize with a Roman Catholic organization of laymen and priests known as the Sacerdotal Society of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei. It was Opus Dei last week that gained the Franco patrimony. At least ten of the 19 members of the new Cabinet are associated with it in some way.

Opus Dei (the Work of God) might also be called Octopus Dei. Most of its lay members are professional men who pledge to strengthen their Christian lives by improving the world around them. They accomplish this in part by appointing fellow members to key government and commercial posts. Opus Dei adherents are known to control almost all of Spain’s banking and a large share of its communications media. “They have the frying pan by the handle and the handle as well,” runs a Spanish expression, meaning that members have both power and the will to use it.

Not Necessarily Liberal. The leading member of the group is Planning Minister Laureano López Rodó, 48. A onetime administrative law professor. López Rodó is a protégé of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, who is Vice President and one of the few men Franco really trusts. He is also the probable choice for Premier under a restored monarchy. El Caudillo apparently listened when Carrero Blanco and López Rodó pointed out to him that the competent Opus Dei technocrats would do less boat-rocking than the Falangists. As a result, technocrats got key posts in the new Cabinet announced last week. Gregorio López Bravo, 45, the former Minister of Industry, was promoted to Foreign Minister. Technocrats also took over the finance, commerce, industry, housing, information and tourism posts.

Falangists greeted the appointments angrily. Shouting “Falange, si. Opus Dei, no!”, they demonstrated through Madrid’s streets last week. Other Spaniards pointed out that the appointments by no means indicate a shift to a less dictatorial Spain. Said one Madrileňo, who belongs to the order himself: “This means an economic opening up to Europe, but it does not necessarily mean liberalism at home. There is not one man on the list you could call even moderately left.”