Franco's Rise to Power and the New Spanish State

Generalissimo Franco and the National Defense Board

ITEM 2: 5) Franco, Generalissimo: The military created an organ from the rebel leadership they called the National Defense Board, which was composed of military personnel and headed by Cabanellas. The board banned the activity of all political parties, suspended the constitution, and decreed the cessation of agrarian reform. The need for the uprising to have a single leader arose very soon. Franco was becoming increasingly popular among the generals and secured recognition from Hitler and Mussolini. As such, he was appointed head of the state government and Generalissimo of the Spanish armies, and the headquarters moved to the Salamanca Generalissimo.

The Creation of the Single Party

Just as political groups acted, the Spanish Falange—whose leader, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, was shot—and the Traditionalist Communion remained active. In fact, the only fascist group affiliation was the Spanish Falange. Given the need to organize a new political power unit, the rebels drew inspiration from the institutional model of fascist states. They turned to that model to create the new state; Franco announced the Unification Decree that created a single party: FET y de las JONS (Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista), unifying the Falange and the Traditionalists. Franco became the party chief and head of state.

The First Government of Burgos

In the person of Franco, leadership of the state and head of government were concentrated. From then on, he stepped forward to be called the Caudillo of Spain. He promulgated a Fundamental Law, the "Fuero del Trabajo" (Jurisdiction of Work), which laid the foundation for the corporate organization of the state and vertical unionism. This was a statewide organization that brought together employers and workers; strikes and collective claims were considered subversive.

Legislation on the media favored the Church and ended the attempted secularization undertaken by the Republic. Finally, the Law of Political Responsibilities empowered mixed courts with the power to apply penalties to people from leftist parties.

Reform of the Centralized State and Autonomy

In Catalonia, the President had proclaimed the Catalan Republic within the Iberian Federation, which was nullified. The government acknowledged an autonomous government, and a commission was charged with drafting a statute (the Statute of Nuria). A statute for Catalonia was finally adopted, although with cuts to the original Nuria draft. The first elections to the Catalan parliament gave victory to the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.

In the Basque Country, PNV nationalists and Carlists approved a draft statute. This project was opposed by the Left Republicans and Socialists, which delayed its approval indefinitely. Since the war began, a statute—a political product of consensus between nationalists, republicans, and socialists with a distinctly democratic character—was passed. Jose Antonio Aguirre, the principal PNV leader, was elected Lehendakari.

In Galicia, nationalist consciousness was less pronounced, and on June 28, 1936, a referendum was held for a draft statute that was never to be approved by the courts due to the outbreak of the Civil War.