Spain Outside the Door

For two years, Dictator Francisco Franco had been "on his best behavior.

Spain's bid for associate membership in the Common Market was at stake, and el Caudillo was willing to relax his autocratic grip a bit in order to convince the Eurocrats of his sincerity. Last week in Brussels, on the eve of the 25th-anniversary celebration of Franco's Civil War victory, Spain's two-year-old application finally got a hearing.

Priming the Pump. Spain's advocates could point out that Franco had really tried. Reluctantly admitting that his country could not achieve economic maturity outside the Common Market, he embarked on a deliberate policy of liberalization. Press censorship was eased; reactionary Falangist ministers were replaced by more open-minded officials; a recent trial of 33 political prisoners was held before a civilian rather than a military court--and some prisoners were even acquitted.

Equally important, as far as the Common Market was concerned, Franco began to reform Spain's backward economy. Many rigid state controls on prices and production were abolished, and foreign investors began priming the Hispanic pump. Spain's annual industrial output climbed at a rate of 11% a year; gross national income rose at 6% to a record $13 billion last year. Gold and foreign-currency reserves, a paltry $65 million five years ago, now total $1.2 billion.

Millions of tourists flooded into Spain, spending $650 million last year alone on everything from corridas to castanets. An even more important migration went the other way. Nearly a million Spanish workers, jobless in their own country, headed out into labor-hungry Europe; today they send home nearly $200 million a year in savings, a major source of income for the Spanish economy.

Pleading the Cause. In Brussels, France's Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville pleaded Spain's cause logically and eloquently. Spanish diplomats had tried using the engagement of Spain's Prince Carlos and The Netherlands' Princess Irene, as well as the Spanish birth of Belgium's Queen Fabiola, to woo the Low Countries. Nothing could shake the bitter Socialist Francophobes of Belgium and Italy. "The Belgian government can never accept this Spain," snapped Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak, though he did not exclude bilateral trade agreements with Common Market nations. Italy's Ambassador Antonio Venturini made it plain that his government's apertura a sinistra (opening to the left) could never brook an apertura a Franco.

Delaying a formal decision until mid-April, the Six left open the possibility of further discussions with Spain over its economic future. That just about gave Spain a toe hold. But Common Market membership appears impossible as long as Franco rules. El Caudillo's economic brain-trusters would be glad enough to settle for mere trade agreements at present, but their problem now is to keep Franco encouraged despite the slap in Brussels.

By hewing to their ritualistic hatred of Franco Spain, by still insisting on fighting the battles of a quarter-century ago, the Socialists of Belgium and Italy may be making a mistake. The Falangist foes of liberalization may soon be crying: "We told you so." By trying to "please the foreigners," they claim, the government has sullied Spanish pride. A return to isolationism and intransigency could well be the result.

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