Nine years ago, on June 19, 2014, he ascended the throne Philip VIcurrent king of Spain, son of the king Juan Carlos who had been chosen by the dictator Franco as a dolphin and who, after years of reign, resolved to abdicate due to a scandal linked to some tax crimes.
In those days the demonstrations in favor of the multiplied Republicthen diminished and totally forgotten also in the light of the succession of referendums requesting independence by the Catalonia. For his part, King Felipe, in 2015, had a commemorative coin minted with his own effigy to celebrate the “70 years of peace” since the end of the Second World War, sparking controversy, given that that period includes a large part of the dictatorship (1939-1975).
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Unfortunately in Spain a residue of Franco’s rhetoric still resists, on which modern Spain was born during the Transition years: the idea that a degeneration of democracy does not lead to the risk of experiencing a dictatorship, but a civil war, as was the one from 1936-1939 which opened the doors to 36 years of Francoism. The rhetoric is clear: Franco’s government was “necessary” to ensure balances between “two Spains” and to suffocate any attempt at victory by the “communist germ” (the regime was always supported by the USA in the years after the world war precisely in an anti-communist key). If anything, the real bogeyman to keep away was the risk of a new and unavoidable civil war.
Even in 2021, faced with the government’s attempt to change the memory law because the crimes of Francoism could somehow be taken into consideration (impossible to judge them because of the amnesty law of 1977which with a clean slate had condoned the crimes that occurred during the years of the regime), the right has risen up: “So the agreements of the Transition“. In short, the idea remains that the past should not be touched and that only the monarchy, which confirmed Spain’s democratic status in the face of an attempted coup in 1981, can guarantee the country’s unity and cohesion.
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Fortunately, some progress has been possible: only from the end of 2022 theapology of Francoism it is a crime and crimes against humanity are being investigated, but starting from 1978, again for the aforementioned Amnesty; and only in 2023 the body of Jose Antonio Primo de Riveraideologue of Francoism, was moved from the mausoleum of the Valle de los Caidos, where he rested together with Franco surrounded by mass graves filled with the bodies of the prisoners of war who were forced to erect it.
Even some well-known personalities, such as the actor Javier Bardemare publicly expressing their support for the republic, seen precisely as opposition to the monarchy-regime dualism.
Even in the presence of strong popular support for the Republic, however, the process to arrive at changing the state order would still be arduous. In the first place, each of the two chambers should express itself in favor of the constitutional change for two thirds of the representatives. After that, they should dissolve and after the new elections the vote should be repeated by the new chambers. If everything is confirmed, the popular referendum would be the last step.
It is clear that with these premises the form of the State is armored. But in front of the news that interested the king emeritus (elephant hunting while the country suffered an unprecedented economic crisis, cases of corruption and money laundering, Self-exile to Abu Dhabi in which it still stands today) and which have tarnished the reputation of the monarchical institution, anything is possible. Also that “the two Spains”, from this point of view, agree on wanting to change the course of history.