“Participation of all citizens and groups without discrimination in political life” and “expansion of the freedoms and rights of citizens.” These were the two main desires of the Spanish citizens regarding the political situation that the country was experiencing when less than a month had passed since the death of Francisco Franco, according to an opinion study launched by the Institute of Public Opinion, predecessor of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS).
Two suggested answers that 55% of those interviewed subscribed to, far above the reform of the institutions that the formalization of democracy should bring, and which at that time was only a priority for 11%. In fact, on another question, the majority (30%) opted for “a slow evolution towards a more (sic) democratic system”, compared to a practically identical percentage (29%) who opted for a break to “ “immediately launch a democratic system like that of the countries of Europe.” The option “that nothing would change” was a minority (18%), although significant.
The survey was carried out on a universe of 1,240 people of different sex, origin and social status captured on the street in nine unspecified municipalities over the two days following the first declaration of the new Government in the mouth of both the new head of State, King Juan Carlos I, as well as the President of the Executive, Carlos Arias Navarro, which occurred on December 15, 1975.
The stated objective of the study was to evaluate the degree of information that Spanish society had about the government declaration, the interest it had aroused, the social reception of the announced democratic evolution of the regime and its expectations about the political future of Spain. In short, taking the pulse of a society in effervescence after the first announcement of political change from the Government. And it should be noted that with a questionnaire that was not very condescending to the regime still in force and with suggested questions and answers where democracy and rupture without prejudice were appealed.
The declaration of the new Government and the head of State came in the middle of the social and political debate, marked by protests over the last executions of the Franco regime, which occurred less than a month before the death of the dictator and to which the Franco regime responded with the massive concentration in the Plaza de Oriente in Madrid. Furthermore, the demands for democracy and amnesty that came both from abroad and from the mobilizations that took place in the main cities. Coinciding with that first meeting of the council of ministers of the new Government, the still illegal Assemblea por Catalunya had gathered more than 3,000 people in Montserrat.
The text was still explicit and forceful in placing among the Government’s priorities the “expansion of civil liberties and rights, especially the right of association, and the reform of representative institutions to broaden their base.” Likewise, he stressed “persevering in the construction of a Spanish democracy that cannot be damaged by any totalitarian threat and tends towards greater homogeneity with the Western community.”
Those interviewed were mostly aware of the declaration – 61% said so or “knew something” – and they basically stuck to their statements in favor of “participation, democracy and freedoms” (41%). The commitments to “economic development and work” (19%) or “peace and public order” (16%) were less important to them. That is to say, a clear majority aligned itself with the demands for a new regime that were taking place in the streets, despite their caution.
All this, at a time when the so-called Franco bunker clung to the continuity of the regime with the confidence of having everything “tied and well tied”, as Franco himself had promised in his 1969 Christmas speech. An operation supported by the separation of the Presidency of the Government and the Head of State, as in fact was made clear in this two-headed declaration of 1975 by the new Government. However, the key piece was the figure of Luis Carrero Blanco and his reformulation of the Principles of the National Movement, which he presented after his appointment as president in June 1973.
The assassination of the admiral by an ETA commando that same December changed the situation, and his successor, Carlos Arias Navarro, moved in the two and a half years that he held the position between openness desires, encouraged by the king himself, and closure. of Falange and the most conservative sectors. Until Juan Carlos I asked him to resign, which he presented in July 1976, to appoint Adolfo Suárez and promote the law for Political Reform, approved by the Cortes in November and in a referendum, with a participation of 77% of the census. and a resounding 94.17% of votes in favor, on December 15 of that year, one year after the declaration for which the Institute of Public Opinion was asking.
