January 27, 2005
Time for a rousing speech...
Our fight is a crusade in which Europe's fate is at stake. That is why since the beginning Russia has taken her place unconditionally on the side of the Spanish Republic by sending tanks and a thousand war-planes, and by mobilizing the undesirables of all Europe to fight for the Red Army. Our triumph is immense, in spite of the difficulties of the enterprise. No difficulties have prevented the rescue of over three million Spaniards from Red barbarism during the second triumphal year.
I beg your affectionate remembrance of our brothers who are suffering from the effects of lawlessness in the Red zone, and your prayers for the martyrs of our cause. I pay tribute to those who have fallen far from their own countries - the natives, the volunteers, the legionaries who left their home to enrol in the forces of the crusade and to demonstrate in Spain the fullness of their countries' identification with the cause of firmness and friendship professed by them towards Spain.
The Reds assassinated over 70,000 in Madrid, 20,000 in Valencia, 54,000 in Barcelona. Such crimes are the work of the Comintern and its agents Rosenberg, Marti, Negrin, Del Vayo - all servants of Soviet Russia.
Spaniards have a duty to remember that Christian charity is boundless for the deluded and the repentant but they must observe the dictates of prudence and not allow the infiltration of the recalcitrant enemies of Spain. Those proceeding from a politically infested area must undergo quarantine to avoid the contamination of the community.
I denounce the new Red campaigns of those posing as defenders of Spanish independence against foreign invasion. The foreign invasion came through the Catalan frontier, whence entered the undesirables who sacked and destroyed Spanish towns and villages, looted banks, destroyed homes, and stole our patrimony of art.
The Reds who pursued these treacherous tactics in the Nationalist rear, in attempting to destroy our unity, will continue these tactics after the war, when our vigilance and our care for the purity of our creed must increase. The Nationalist movement has ousted the old political intrigues and is guiding the nation to greatness and prosperity.
Spain was great when she had a State Executive with a missionary character. Her ideals decayed when a serious leader was replaced by assemblies of irresponsible men, adopting foreign thought and manners. The nation needs unity to face modem problems, particularly in Spain after the severest trial of her history.
Separatism and class war must be abolished and justice and education must be imposed. The new leaders must be characterized by austerity, morality, and industry.
Spaniards must adopt the military and religious virtues of discipline and austerity. All elements of discord must be removed.
Francisco Franco, statement (18th July, 1938)
Erik:
That's reassuring though I'd disagree with your image of both regions as a Golan Heights. Without question, Franco's cultural policy towards Catalunya and Basque country was one of obliteration. He was attempting to finish what Felipe V started but failed. The savage repression and the obstinancy t
It was also exceedingly hypocrtical of Franco to claim that he was protecting the church when he executed Carrasco-Formiguera (the president of the Catalan Catholic party and precusor to the current Christian democratic party) despite the pope's personal pleas to spare him.
Catalunya isn't the only area that bad ideas came through; don't forget that both the Bourbons brought their share of foreign advisors as well as French centralist and monarchical ideas contrary to Spain's. Since Felipe V, Spain has often looked to France- later Germany- for intellectual inspirations.
We share the same opposition towards the European secularists who deny the continent's Christian heritage in its new constitution- but let Turkey in as a member- as well the various secularists ridding of all vestiges of Christanity.
Thanks again for your response.
xavier
Posted by: xavier at February 5, 2005 11:22 AMXavier,
Franco's Catalonian and Basque policies are the ones that I am least comfortable with. I certainly understand the constant urge towards national unity, what with the history of the Reconquista and all, but in the end I think that Spain and the Basques and Catalonians would have been better off with those regions as autonomous, especially the Basques.
As for Catalonia, though, they have traditionally been the gateway for bad ideas (as well as some good ones, in all fairness: Miro, Gaudi, etc.) to enter Spain (as they currently have been relishing this rediscovered role), so I am more inclined to look at them as the Golan Heights of Iberia: not really Spain, but necessarily under Spanish control to defend Spain.
As far as the motto, I am content to have it live on beyond the history books. The Crisis in Spain is much more central to current events than many would like to think, and both sides are very much alive and dangerous. I would say that it will be time to leave it in the history books when the reds and radical secularists are nothing more than a chapter in the same books.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at February 5, 2005 12:11 AMErik:
When Franco whined about separatism, he was denouncing the Catalan and Basques recuperating their political institutions that had been eroded since Olivares and then, in Catalunya's case, abolished by the 1715 Decret of the Nova Planta. Pretty grotesque for Franco to complain about adoption of foreign ideas when he was about to reimpose an even harser update of the Nova Planta. An imposition of French absolutism and centralism on Spain.
Fr Jim:
Can we leave that motto in the bookshelves of history where it belongs? Let's concentrate on Spain's continued consolidation of a democratic polity and preservation of Spain's Christan moral foundations
Stephan:
Franco did have a point.The communists/anarchists' persecution of the Church, the rape of nuns, the killing of priests and destruction of religious buildingsis well attested. My dad's cousin- a retired preist was a seminarian at the time of the Civil war and had to go into hiding and dress in civilian clothes.
There's a curious parallel between 1789 and 1936.
In any case, Franco's regime is history and the task now is to recuperate repressed/censored memories of the time period
xavier
¡Una, Grande, Libre!
¡¡¡Arriba España!!!
Do grownups really believe this stuff?
Posted by: Stephen Cordova at January 27, 2005 10:27 PM