On assaulting Nurses and Pro Football players.

[Alram]

The spanish ruling parties, especially the Partido Popular is populated by Francoists (I don't need to say neo-francoists because these are the same people that were involved in the Franco dictatorship)...

I speak with several Spaniards on a regular weekly basis and communicate on a forum with others. The above remarks did not ring true to me and so I asked my friends about it. I will quote the detailed response given by Fernando for your edification. It is long and detailed. The short version is that the above statement is incorrect.

In short, Alianza Popular (AP) got all the people who were at the right part of the political spectrum of UCD but were OK with democracy. All the people who were real Francoists arrived to far-right parties (Falange, Fuerza Nueva).

When UCD dissappeared, AP got all the right part of the electorate (liberals, christian democrats, some social democrats, conservatives and the like). Francoists were "outside" (Fuerza Nueva, Democracia Nacional).


To put things in context: Franco died on Nov, 20th. Any politician who had some responsability in Franco times is dead or with prostate problems.

After Franco died, you had in the political spectrum:

a) Opposition to Franco:
- Communists (by far, the main force)
- ETA
Contubernio de Múnich - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Socialists (who had just left Marxismus behind)
- Monarchists, Christian democrats, liberals (tiny groups)
- Nationalists (Basque and Catalans, specially)

b) People with some responsabilities in Franco government included after 40 years of government, from hardcore Civil War generals to social democrats. Most of them were willing to open the country to a democracy (more or less "controlled", since they were afraid to death of a Communist return, for the welfare of the country as well as for their personal security).

For the first democratic elections (1977, 1979), Communists were expected to win. However, they got around 10% of the vote, while the rest organized as
Elecciones generales de España de 1977 - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

a) Socialists (PSOE) got all the vote of the left which were afraid of a new civil war if Communists/Francoists arrived to power.

b) UCD got all the vote of the centre and the right which were afraid of a new civil war if Communists/Francoists arrived to power.

c) AP got a bad result (6%), directed by former Franco minister Manuel Fraga, who was in the "open" faction of the people who had had responsability in Franco times.

d) Fuerza Nueva Fuerza Nueva - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre got the votes of Francoists who wanted to be alive in democracy (many simply did not enter in the political game and were simply "retired"). For them, UCD and AP were just the same: traitors to Franco regime.

In the next years, UCD eventually dissappeared and AP concentred all the vote of the political right and center-right, including liberals (UL), Christian Democrats (PDP). In 1989 was "re-founded" to get rid of their most Conservative (Francoists if you like) elements and Aznar was named candidate to presidency (he had not achieved it until 1996).

Today, even the far-right is not mostly Francoist. They tried to copycat Front National or UKIP, turning to the inmigration as their main leit motiv, with no success.

I can very well imagine that many Catalunyans want to separate from Spain. A country known for having incompetent politicians

What country doesn't have incompetent politicians? Our choices for president were Hillary and Trump -- How much worse can you get?