We should declassify the documents which put, once and for all, in black and white, the reality of the 23F coup attempt, its prequels and its epigones. Why look for elephants in Botswana when there may be ones closer?
Right to know (and judge the king emeritus
French historian Henry Rousso says that the history of the present is “the history since the last catastrophe.” If this is the case, we will have to agree that, given the last decade, Generation Z could recount their recent past for hours and minutes. Transcending anecdote and immediacy, the history of the present is seen as encompassing the last three living generations and that its starting point is, by definition, mobile. The French academic established at the time the beginning of universal coevativity in the world resulting from the Second World War. This border has moved and currently stands its cantons at the crossroads of the centuries.
For Spain, the stage that once represented war and dictatorship has moved to the origins of the transition to democracy, the beginning of which must be sought in the last stage of the Franco regime. In this context, the image of Prince Juan Carlos, Franco’s successor as head of state, bearing the title of king and swearing by the Fundamental Principles of the Movement, has lost in school textbooks the prominent place it occupied then in the media and in the media. that he undoubtedly has the right to this biography which, according to the person concerned, some are determined to steal from him.
Anointed by the finger of a dictator from the lineage of Nazi fascism – as the UN General Assembly characterized the Franco regime in 1946 – the figure of the king represented the hope of possible change for a society built on gentleness and fear. recurring punishment. On February 23, 1981, a bath of democratic legitimization took place. Jorge Semprún, invoking Bossuet, theorist of absolute power, writes in his last memoirs that on this occasion the king placed his body between himself and the putschists. Instead of the “white elephant” that they expected, and as if the thaumaturgical power of his distant Capetian ancestors had been conferred on him, he would have healed by the imposition of hands a national body secularly divided into two hostile and irreconcilable halves . .
The old ghost of the civil war is definitively exorcised. Few pointed out that the international environment of the time, unlike that of the 1930s, was not conducive to barracks in Western Europe and that in his family – his own family and close friends – he could find examples of the harmful consequences for war. throne of temporization with the military junta. All it takes is a trip to the CIA website to verify the level of concern of North American intelligence, as well as some worrying notes that only the declassification of the funds from its Spanish mirrors could clarify:
“Military complicity in planning the coup was more widespread than initially appeared. Many other key military leaders apparently would have supported the coup attempt if it had not been crushed so quickly. He turkish model will continue to attract the military to Spain, especially if partisan political fighting intensifies. Juan Carlos’ clear rejection of the military decision has undermined his position among some officers, and could alienate more of them if he fails to stop terrorism or the process of autonomy in Spain. The king apparently promised the military that he would institute martial law in the Basque provinces if terrorism got out of control, and he may also have promised that he would work to limit regional autonomy, which the military fears would be destructive to the Spanish State. Director of the CIA, March 26, 1981).
“Although he suffered some damage in his relations with the military, notably due to rumors that he first tolerated and then betrayed the coup attempt, the king worked hard to rebuild their relations. During his research on military occasions, he encouraged the military to inform him of their frustrations at the same time as he ordered them to maintain discipline” (Julio, 1982).
“The judgment [a los golpistas] could weaken King Juan Carlos’ ability to contain the army. The defense claims that the conspirators believed they had the tacit consent of the king, which could imply betrayal on the part of Juan Carlos, who acted forcefully and publicly against the conspirators while the attempted assault was already underway. “Such accusations would be particularly damaging because the king had long been close to the Armada.” (February 16, 1982)
For a long time, governments, systemic parties and hegemonic media protected the providential man from all criticism and allowed and theorized the abusive use of the principle of irresponsibility of the king in the exercise of his function. Such a level of idolatry could only arouse in the monarch a feeling of plenitude bordering on impunity. What the voters of Cádiz conceived as a means of relieving the monarch of the consequences of the acts he approved, attributing responsibility to his ministers, became between 1977 and 2014 a trademark patent for royal venality and winking of complicity who did not hesitate. give way to a railway omerta when it was about his wrongdoings, both public and private. A law of silence which began to crack in 2011, at the very moment when the first cracks appeared in the institutional whole which until then functioned like a well-oiled engine, with its reciprocating twin-cylinder engine and its majestic electrically assisted steering wheel. piloting.
With the exception of the classics – and even themselves, mired in academic ignorance – there is no myth safe from temporary erosion. Nearly two generations have passed since this 23F. For most of Spanish society, the adventures of the King Emeritus belong to the juicy world of salseo, and the soundtrack that frames them is not Pomp and circumstance by Edward Elgar but the curtain of an episode of Benny Hill. His whims in a room or a chalet with closed circuit filming do not add an iota of political criticism to a questioning of the institution which can and must be carried out from political philosophy and parliamentary platforms, not from rallies roses and coated paper. .
The founding milestones of the era of transition – consolidation of freedoms, social and economic modernization, insertion of Spain into the international community – that a hagiographical tradition right up to the court attributed to the providential figure of the “pilot of change” were forged in a demographic context. cohort today on the exit ramp. It should be remembered that, based on population figures by age from the INE as of July 1, 2024, Spain has 48,797,875 inhabitants, of which 39,761,459 are Spanish by birth. For two out of ten, Juan Carlos is a foreign story; Among the nationals of origin, more than half were born after the promulgation of the Constitution of 1978 and 82.7% of people currently of age have not had the possibility of supporting it and have not been called upon to approve a any reform by their vote.
85% of citizens no longer have any link, whether geographical or chronological, with the figure of the emeritus. The living, to paraphrase the radical thinker Tom Payne, do not have to pay the debts of the dead. The judgment of history remains. For this to be proven, mature democracies cannot allow themselves, as was said of the Soviet Union in Stalin’s time, to have their reality be “an enigma wrapped in mystery, within an enigma.” In this, the archives play a fundamental role and, given that it is a nodal point of our democratic memory, the declassification of documents which put once and for all, black and white, the reality of the attempt to coup d’état would be required of 23F, its prequels and its epigones. Why look for elephants in Botswana when there may be some – and white ones – closer.
