The
Movimiento Nacional (National Movement) was the name given to the fascist inspired mechanism during Francoist rule in
SpainFrancisco Franco became the dictator of Spain when he defeated the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. Franco declared an official end of hostilities on April 1, 1939, and reworked the name of the republic into the “Spanish State,” a new moniker attempting to distinguish the new regime...
, which purported to be the only channel of participation to Spanish public life. It responded to a doctrine of
corporatismCorporatism is a system of economic, political, and social organization where corporate groups such as business, ethnic, farmer, labour, military, patronage, or religious groups are joined together into a single governing body in which the different groups are mandated to negotiate with each other...
in which only so-called "natural entities" could express themselves: families, municipalities and unions.
The
Movimiento Nacional was primarily composed of:
- the single-party state
A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
, named Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (known as Falange Española, acronym: FET y de las JONS) which had been created at the beginning of the Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
.
The
Movimiento Nacional (National Movement) was the name given to the fascist inspired mechanism during Francoist rule in
SpainFrancisco Franco became the dictator of Spain when he defeated the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. Franco declared an official end of hostilities on April 1, 1939, and reworked the name of the republic into the “Spanish State,” a new moniker attempting to distinguish the new regime...
, which purported to be the only channel of participation to Spanish public life. It responded to a doctrine of
corporatismCorporatism is a system of economic, political, and social organization where corporate groups such as business, ethnic, farmer, labour, military, patronage, or religious groups are joined together into a single governing body in which the different groups are mandated to negotiate with each other...
in which only so-called "natural entities" could express themselves: families, municipalities and unions.
Composition
The
Movimiento Nacional was primarily composed of:
- the single-party state
A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
, named Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (known as Falange Española, acronym: FET y de las JONS) which had been created at the beginning of the Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
. Others parties were prohibited (the sole name of "partyA political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns...
" was prohibited to design any type of organization).
- the trade union
A trade union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas, such as working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers...
organization, called sindicato vertical, composed of corporativist organizations which gathered employers and workers, in opposition to Marxism's class warfare.
- All civil servants and any holder of some sort of public office was requested to swear an oath to the Principios del Movimiento Nacional (Principles of the National Movement)
The National Movement was lead by the
caudilloCaudillo is a Spanish word usually describing a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. It is usually translated into English as "leader" or "chief," or more pejoratively as warlord, "dictator" or "strongman". Caudillo was the term used to refer the charismatic populist...
FrancoFrancisco Franco Bahamonde, commonly known as Francisco Franco , or simply Franco, was a military general and dictator of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975...
himself, titled "Jefe del Movimiento
(Chief of the Movement), assisted by a "Minister Secretary General of the Movement". The hierarchy extended itself to all of the country, with a "local chief of the movement" named in each village.
Ideology
People who strongly identified with the Movimiento Nacional were colloquially known as FalangistasFalange Española de las J.O.N.S. is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word Falange means phalanx formation in Spanish...
or Azules
(Blue), from the colour of the shirts worn by José Primo de Rivera's fascist organization created during the Second Republic. Camisas viejas
(Old shirts) enjoyed the honour of being historical members of the Falange, compared to Camisas nuevas
(New shirts), who could be accused of opportunismOpportunism is a term used in politics and political science. It forms an important rationale as well for transaction cost economics. It is interpreted in different ways, but usually refers to one or more of the following:...
.
The ideology of the Movimiento Nacional was resumed by the sloganA slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish and Irish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm...
¡Una, Grande y Libre!, which stood for the indivisibility of the Spanish state and the refusal of any
regionalismRegionalism is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international commercial system...
or
decentralization__FORCETOC__Decentralization or Decentralisation is the process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the people and/or citizen. It includes the dispersal of administration or governance in sectors or areas like engineering, management science, political science, political economy,...
, its imperial character, both past (the defunct
Spanish EmpireThe Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in world history, and one of the first global empires. It included territories and colonies in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, from the 15th century through—in the case of its African holdings—the latter portion of the 20th century...
in the
AmericasThe Spanish colonization of the Americas was the settlement and political rule over much of the western hemisphere which was initiated by the Spanish conquistadors and fought mostly by their native allies...
, and foreseen in Africa), and its indepedence towards the purported "Judeo-masonic-Marxist international conspiracy" (a personal obsession of Franco), materialized by the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, the European democracies, the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(until the 1953 agreements) or the "exterior enemy" which could threatened the nation at any time, as well as towards the long list of "internal enemies" ("anti-Spanish", "reds", "separatist", "liberals", etc.).
Francoist "families"
Since single-party rule was enforced in Francoist Spain, the only way of pluralism consisted in internal "families" (Familias del Regimen, i.e., different groups of pressure) competing together inside the National Movement. These included the Catholic "family" (which brought the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
's support and the
national CatholicismNational Catholicism was part of the ideological identity of Francoism, the dictatorial regime with which Francisco Franco governed Spain between 1936 and 1975...
ideology), the monarchist "family" (or conservative right, composed of many former members of the CEDA), the traditionalist "family" (issued from
CarlismCarlism is a traditionalist and legitimist political movement in Spain seeking the establishment of a separate line of the Bourbon family on the Spanish throne. This line descended from Carlos V and was founded due to widespread dissatisfaction with the Alfonsine line of the House of Bourbon...
), the military tendency (figures close to Franco himself, including the so-called africanistas
) and the Azules
themselves or national syndicalistNational syndicalism is a variant of syndicalism typically associated with the labor movement in Italy which would later become a basis of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party.- Outlook :...
s, who controlled the bureaucracy of the so-called Movement: Falange, Sindicato and many others organizations, such as the veteranA war veteran is a person who has or is serving in the armed forces, or a person who has had long service or experience in an occupation or office....
's national grouping (Agrupación Nacional de Excombatientes
), the women's section (Sección Femenina
), etc.
Franco held his power by balancing these internal rivalries, cautious not to over-favorize any of them nor compromise himself too much to anyone. Thus, all were united by a common interest, the continuation of Franco's defense of traditional Spanish society. The relative plurality of Francoism, inside the official frame of the Movimiento Nacional, has compelled historians such as
Juan LinzJuan José Linz is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Yale University and an honorary member of the Scientific Council at the Juan March Institute...
to classify Francoism as an
authoritarianAuthoritarianism describes a form of government characterized by an emphasis on the authority of state in a republic or union. It is a political system controlled by typically non-elected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom....
, rather than
totalitarianTotalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
, political system.