Recently, the vacuum in Spain created by the lack of historical pedagogy has been filled by populists who glorify the supposed achievements of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.Photo illustration: The Globe and Mail
Antonio Cazorla-Sánchez is a history professor at Trent University. Adrian Shubert is a history professor at York University.
Early in the morning of Nov. 20, 1975, the prime minister of Spain, Carlos Arias Navarro – known in opposition circles as “the Butcher of Málaga” for his crimes during the country’s civil war – tearfully announced to the Spanish people and the world that Francisco Franco had died.
Although many celebrated in secret, most Spaniards held their breath. Everyone knew that a chapter in the nation’s history was closing, but no one knew what the future held. There were many reasons to be pessimistic.
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Franco, who led the winning side in the Spanish Civil War and ruled the country with an iron fist until his death, had made the division among Spaniards – between victors and vanquished – a cornerstone of his regime. Most citizens feared that the wounds of the past would reopen, and that Spain would enter a new phase of violence.
Furthermore, the belated but real “Spanish economic miracle” that had begun around 1960 had just entered a crisis due to the rise in oil prices following the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The Spanish dictatorship was unable to take measures to alleviate the deep recession and rampant inflation that resulted. In response, the last two years of Francoism witnessed massive workers’ strikes and their repression by the police.
A vandalized plaque with the images of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and his brother Ramon Franco is pictured on the wall of their house, where they were born in Ferrol, Nov. 11, 2025.Nacho Doce/Reuters
Fortunately, unlike their grandparents in 1936, most Spaniards in 1975 were not willing to support any kind of violent politics, nor a revolution. On the contrary, they wanted peace, and they were beginning to understand that this could only be maintained if profound political reforms were carried out that also guaranteed freedom and prosperity. They were ready for democracy like that enjoyed in the rest of Western Europe.
They were also fortunate that the man designated by Franco to continue his legacy, the new King Juan Carlos I, was considering how to democratize the country.
These were the keys to Spain’s rapid political transition, which led to the country’s first free elections in June, 1977, and to the approval of the current constitution in December, 1978.
The constitution created a semi-federal structure to address the long-standing challenge of regional nationalism in the Basque Country and Catalonia. The challenge remains, however, a situation with which Canadians will be familiar.
Former Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco speaks from the balcony of Madrid's Royal Palace next to the then Prince Juan Carlos of Spain in this undated file photo.Reuters Photographer/Reuters
Despite problems with corruption and the politicization of the judicial system, Spanish democracy remains robust. In 2024, Spain was one of only 25 “full democracies” on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, seven spots behind Canada but ahead of such “flawed democracies” as the United States and France.
Spanish society has experienced exponential progress in the 50 years since Franco’s death. It built a solid welfare state, significantly expanded its university system, and legalized divorce, abortion and – in the same year as Canada – gay marriage. The status of women has improved significantly, and Spain currently ranks 12th in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, 20 places ahead of Canada.
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These are major achievements, but today the country is grappling with many of the same problems that face other wealthy democracies: growing economic inequality, an acute housing crisis, the consequences of mass immigration, culture wars and, because of all this, disenchantment with democracy itself – especially among the young – and the rise of the far right. In Spain, that has manifested as a growing nostalgia for a mythologized dictatorial past that most of today’s Spaniards never experienced.
Spaniards are no more slaves to their past or false memories than other people. As with civil wars elsewhere, Spain’s history continues to be highly politicized. To a significant extent, this is both a cause and a result of the lack of effort by successive governments to educate the population about the horrors of the conflict and the Francoist dictatorship.
Recently, the vacuum created by the lack of historical pedagogy has been filled by populists and demagogues who not only spread hate for immigrants but also glorify the supposed achievements of Franco’s dictatorship. Spaniards under 40 are the most avid consumers of these discourses.
In sum, Spain has changed a great deal since 1975, and generally for the better. The country that was once terrified of its own past is now a vibrant, confident and tolerant nation. It has shown, despite those who today say that only authoritarianism can guarantee rapid socio-economic progress, that is precisely the opposite, democracy, which can produce a fair, well-educated and humane society.
How Spain, like other democracies in Europe and elsewhere, withstands the current challenges remains to be seen.