THE SPANISH SCENE IS FRANCO ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH THE CHURCH?

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31083, 11 June 1966, Page 16

THE SPANISH SCENE IS FRANCO ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH THE CHURCH?

<B'J

SIMON KAVANAUGH)

“Franco is dead” says the old Spanish story. “Hooray! Who will follow him?” “Why, Franco of course.” “Hooray for Franco!”

An old and poor joke indeed, but in twenty-five years they have not found a better one. Spaniards have been confidently predicting his downfall and his death for so long it is the prophets who are laughed at now. Soon, it is said, the Caudillo will have no enemies; he will have outlived them all.

Today, however, he faces a situation which even the most cautious political seer could call dangerous. For Franco, the seemingly immovable object, is on a collision course with the Church, in Spain a traditionally irresistable force.

Recent clashes with the clergy have yet to be resolved, but when they are—and they must be —Franco, for the first time, may find himself taking orders and making concessions. The trouble began when police arrested a student during a demonstration against the closing of Barcelona University. They allegedly beat him up. and 150 young priests then filed silently through the streets to deliver a protest note to the police chief. To the astonishment of watching crowds, police laid into them with truncheons. Had they been farmworkers, or miners, students or shopkeepers, little more would have been heard. But the Pope has more divisions than Franco. Archbishop’s Sermon The Archbishop of Barcelona picked up his pen and wielded it like a sword. He condemned outright the use of violence by civil authorities (“especially when dealing with sacred persons”) and, somewhat obscurely, urged people to take action and not simply to make speeches—“we must be doers and not merely talkers.” This sermon was preached throughout Catalonia, the traditional stronghold of anti-Franco opinion, and its effect was immediate. Government newspapers attacked the priests and the Archbishop, accused them of meddling in politics. The split widened when Barcelona’s priests appealed to the Archbishop to enforce Canon Law 2343—and excommunicate those who had used violence towards them. If this happens, the repercussions may be uncontrollable. It is not a situation that Franco can look to with equanimity, for he is used to holding all the reins of power. He has held Spain in an iron grip since March, 1939, when the Republican army surrendered to him after a war which cost a million dead and another million homeless or exiled. His ruthlessness was legendary;’ only he could have dared to break a general strike with the dreaded Moors of the Foreign Legion—it was the first time they had set foot in Spain since 1492. Once, so the story goes, inspecting the Legion, he asked if there were any complaints. A huge Arab threw a plate of rancid stew in his face. Franco wiped his immaculate uniform and

nodded. “I agree. The food must be improved” he said, and added to an officer: “Take that man away and shoot him.” War Survived When Hitler demanded his support in the war against the Allies (in return for German help in the Spanish Civil War) Franco argued and temporised until the Fuhrer had to agree to allow Spain to remain neutral. “I would rather have had four teeth out” Hitler is reported to have said after meeting him. But Franco did supply invaluable wolfram and troops to the Axis—though both were reduced when Britain threatened an oil blockade. In this way, playing one side against the other, he survived unscathed. The pariah of post-war international politics, he was content to sit tight and let the outside world change, as

he knew it would. So, twenty years on, he can smile as he is asked to support the pound with Fascist gold, and as he blandly doubles the astronomical rent of American air and sea bases in Spain. The United Nations refused him admittance, but he lends money to its member countries today. Europe made Spain an outcast, but the peseta was two years ago voted the continent's most stable currency by Wall street financiers. He demands the return of Gibraltar —and, astonishingly, Britain agrees to talk about it. Who Follows? Personally he leads a frugal, almost spartan life, with a longer working day than most of his countrymen. His relaxations are reading Goethe, painting and shooting. He has a shrewd, rich and aristocratic wife, a beautiful daughter and five grandchildren. At 73, he is as spry as a man of 60. If the question “who follows Franco?” is in the minds of every politically - conscious Spaniard, it does not appear to trouble him. “That is taken care of,” he says calmly. He has. in fact, been grooming Prince Juan Carlos, son of the liberal-minded pretender Don Juan de Bourbon for the Spanish throne (Spain is still technically a monarchy) but the little dictator has never at any time given an indication of when he will stana down, and Prince Juan’s wait may be a long one. The militant Left-wing elements of the ehurch, however, may yet force his hand and persuade him to retire gracefully before it is too late. Blood-stained cassocks, not even Franco could afford.