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PARTISAN REVIEW
Some intellectuals were arrested, supposed ly for having helped Basque
nationalists in the bombing, for it had served perfectly to create an
atmosphere of anxiety withi n the government. The Minister of Information
was fired; the liberal Minister ofFinance resigned in sympathy, and a number
of voluntary resignations and dismissals followed. Arias himself was said to be
on the verge of quitting.
The real decision making, of course, is done in the corridors of El Pardo,
Franco's official residence , and at the private dinner parties of rival or allied
figures. After some lobbying, Arias worked out a compromise. He would stay
if his proposed Law of Political Associations was passed before the end of the
year. The bill was presented on television by an apparently disappointed
Arias , who pleaded for patience and understanding. Under the bill,
associations must be passed on by the Consejo Nacional de Movimienro-the
remains of the old Fascist party, now a sort of consultative body. The mere
possibi lity of a public quarrel among Franco's heirs about who is going to get
what scares the ultra-rightists. It looks, however, very much like the last scene
in this period of Spanish political life.
*
*
*
Who would be elected if free elections were held tomorrow in Spain
I
Nobody knows for sure. This is what worries the moderate right, as well as its
foreign friends, starting with the United States.
Only the conservatives and the far right are likely
to
be able
to
pull
together; forming associations also serves their needs. What is important here is
that the resources that the Francoists are accustomed to draw upon are at odds
with those needed for the future, and they know it-from Giron, the old
hard-line Falangist leader whose words today are reminiscent of a certain
period of Peron ism ,
to
Fraga Iribarna, the ex-Minister of Information who
presents himself as a man of the center ready
to
make a coalition with the
"left" (that is Christian and Social Democrats),
to
those long-time monopo–
lists of government posts called the Opus Dei.
They ruled for many years beneath Franco's shadow, allowing him
to
make and unmake strange combinations and trade-offs among them, as
long as this was the safest way for the Spanish oligarchy and bureaucracy ,
which they all represent, to go on clipping the coupons of economic
development. The secret of Franco's so-called unique skill in arbitrating
conflicts is that he was and is the resultant vector of their forces, rather than an
external ruler imposed by the military on the wealthy.
The success of these classes in retaining power had depended, in great
measure , on their capacity for self-effacement whenever necessary. Now this is
