Spanish Transition to Democracy (1975–1982): After Franco

The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as la Transición, was the period between the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in November 1975 and the election of a Socialist government in October 1982. In those seven years Spain dismantled the Francoist state, legalised political parties, held free elections and adopted a democratic constitution, largely through negotiation rather than revolution. It is often cited as a model of peaceful change from dictatorship to democracy, although it was marked by violence and a serious coup attempt.

Background: Franco’s Spain

Franco had ruled Spain since his victory in the Spanish Civil War in 1939. His regime banned political parties other than the official National Movement, controlled the press and trade unions, and persecuted opponents. From the late 1950s, however, economic liberalisation and mass tourism brought rapid growth, and Spain’s society became more urban, educated and connected to the rest of Europe.

In 1969 Franco named Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón, grandson of the last king, Alfonso XIII, as his successor with the title of king. Franco expected him to preserve the regime. In December 1973 Franco’s prime minister and closest ally, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, was assassinated in Madrid by the Basque separatist group ETA. Franco died on 20 November 1975, and Juan Carlos was proclaimed king two days later.

From reform to rupture: 1976

The king at first kept Franco’s last prime minister, Carlos Arias Navarro, whose reforms were slow and limited. In July 1976 Juan Carlos replaced him with Adolfo Suárez, a 43-year-old former head of the National Movement. The choice surprised many, but Suárez moved quickly.

Working with Torcuato Fernández-Miranda, president of the Francoist parliament (the Cortes), Suárez drafted the Law for Political Reform, which provided for a parliament elected by universal suffrage. On 18 November 1976 the Francoist Cortes voted for it, in effect voting itself out of existence. A referendum on 15 December 1976 approved the law with about 94 per cent of the votes cast.

Legalising the opposition

The most delicate step was the legalisation of the Communist Party (PCE), seen by the army as Franco’s main enemy. In January 1977 far-right gunmen murdered five people, mostly labour lawyers linked to the Communists, at an office on Atocha Street in Madrid. The calm, massive funeral procession helped convince many that the party would act responsibly.

On 9 April 1977, Holy Saturday, Suárez legalised the PCE. Its leader, Santiago Carrillo, accepted the monarchy and the national flag. The army leadership protested, and the navy minister resigned, but there was no revolt.

The 1977 elections and the Moncloa Pacts

On 15 June 1977 Spain held its first free general elections since 1936. Suárez’s Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) won 165 of the 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, and Felipe González’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) won 118. The Communists and the conservative Popular Alliance, led by former Francoist minister Manuel Fraga, trailed far behind.

In October 1977 parliament passed an Amnesty Law that freed political prisoners but also protected officials of the dictatorship from prosecution. The same month, the government and the main parties signed the Moncloa Pacts, an agreement on economic stabilisation and political reforms during a time of high inflation and unemployment.

The 1978 Constitution

A committee of seven deputies from across the political spectrum, later called the “fathers of the Constitution”, drafted a new constitution. It defined Spain as a social and democratic state under the rule of law, with a parliamentary monarchy in which the king has largely symbolic powers. It guaranteed fundamental rights, abolished the death penalty except under military law in wartime, and recognised the right to autonomy of Spain’s “nationalities and regions”.

The Cortes approved the text on 31 October 1978. In a referendum on 6 December 1978 about 88 per cent of voters supported it, on a turnout of about 67 per cent. Support was markedly lower in the Basque Country, where abstention was high. The Constitution came into force on 29 December 1978. Statutes of autonomy for the Basque Country and Catalonia followed in 1979, and other regions gained autonomy over the following years.

The regional question had been addressed even before the Constitution. In September 1977 the government restored the Generalitat, Catalonia’s historic self-government, on a provisional basis, and its president in exile, Josep Tarradellas, returned to Barcelona in October 1977 to a huge welcome. By 1983 the whole of Spain was divided into 17 autonomous communities, creating one of the most decentralised states in Europe.

Violence and the coup attempt of 1981

The transition was not peaceful for everyone. ETA intensified its campaign, and the years 1978–1980 were the deadliest in its history, with roughly 65 to 95 killings in each of those years. Far-right groups and other armed organisations also carried out attacks. The economic crisis and divisions within the UCD weakened Suárez, who resigned in January 1981.

On 23 February 1981, while the Congress was voting to install his successor, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, about 200 Civil Guards led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero stormed the chamber and held the deputies hostage. In Valencia, General Jaime Milans del Bosch put tanks on the streets. In the early hours of 24 February, King Juan Carlos appeared on television in uniform and ordered the armed forces to uphold the constitutional order. The 1981 coup attempt collapsed, and its leaders were later tried and imprisoned.

The 1982 election

On 28 October 1982 the PSOE won an absolute majority with 202 of 350 seats, and Felipe González became prime minister. The peaceful handover of power to a party that had been illegal under Franco is generally seen as the end of the transition. González went on to govern until 1996, the longest continuous term of any Spanish prime minister in the democratic era. Spain had joined NATO in May 1982 and entered the European Communities on 1 January 1986.

Key people

Juan Carlos I (born 1938), king from 1975 until his abdication in 2014, used the powers inherited from Franco to give them up, and his role on 23 February 1981 greatly strengthened support for the monarchy.

Adolfo Suárez (1932–2014) steered the reform from within the regime and led the first democratic governments.

Torcuato Fernández-Miranda (1915–1980), the king’s former tutor, designed the legal path from Francoist law to democracy.

Felipe González and Santiago Carrillo (1915–2012) led the main parties of the left and accepted negotiated change rather than a complete break with the past.

Timeline

• 1975, 20 November: Francisco Franco dies.
• 1975, 22 November: Juan Carlos I is proclaimed king.
• 1976, 3 July: Adolfo Suárez is appointed prime minister.
• 1976, 15 December: The Law for Political Reform is approved by referendum.
• 1977, 9 April: The Communist Party is legalised.
• 1977, 15 June: First free general elections since 1936.
• 1978, 6 December: Voters approve the Constitution.
• 1981, 23 February: Tejero’s coup attempt in the Congress of Deputies.
• 1982, 28 October: The PSOE wins the general election.

Why it matters

The Spanish transition showed that a dictatorship could be dismantled through its own institutions and through compromise between former enemies. Alongside the changes in Portugal and Greece, it brought democracy to southern Europe. Its silence about the crimes of the past remains debated, but the constitutional order it created has lasted for more than four decades.