Homage to the Hard-Liners

Francisco Franco has managed to stay on top in Spain for 31 years by adroitly balancing generals and bishops, Opus Dei technocrats and Falangists. Nonetheless, the real basis of his power has been the fidelity of the Spanish army. Last week, as the tense country awaited the outcome of the stormy trial of 16 Basque terrorists, the uniformed leaders of Franco's praetorian guard closed ranks around the Caudillo--so tightly, in fact, that it was hard to tell whether they had actually pulled a coup.

Spain's ultra-right hard-liners in and out of uniform have never been happy with Franco's steps toward "liberalization." They decided it was time for a showdown earlier this month, when Spain was rocked by demonstrations in support of the Basques, and other terrorists kidnapped West German Diplomat Eugen Beihl. Soon, outraged army officers were meeting to plan a counterattack. Well before Hostage Beihl's release last week on Christmas Day, the army's strategy became clear, as "spontaneous" pro-Franco rallies spread from Madrid to Santander and other cities.

The Price. Unmistakably, the army-generated outpouring of support was not much more than a veiled warning to Franco that he could be in deep trouble if he did not publicly review his sponsorship of Spain's neglected right. But how would he respond? The answer came when Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's vice president and surrogate strongman, went to a special session of parliament. Speaking for "the Caudillo of Spain and the Generalissimo of our armies," the admiral told the delegates that he was there "to render the homage which the armed forces of the nation deserve."

The dictator's homage to the ultraright was not the only price exacted by the army. While conceding that war with Communist invaders from Moscow or Peking was "improbable," Carrero Blanco announced that the nation had no choice but to develop its "maximum military potential." That means that Spain will increase its spending on its armed services and other security forces, which already command an outsized 18.6% of the gross national product.

The Guarantors. Bigger defense budgets would certainly put a strain on Spain's economy, which is in a lingering recession. But the main cost of last week's crypto-coup will be political. The military won an informal but all-important endorsement from parliament as the chief guarantor of the regime's "continuity" when Franco, now 78 and ill, dies and Spain reverts to a monarchy under the youthful and unseasoned king-to-be, Prince Juan Carlos.

The strength of that endorsement should become apparent in the next couple of months, when Franco is expected to respond to the military's demands that he reshuffle his 19-man cabinet. Among those likely to be shuffled out are the more liberal Opus Dei ministers who have been pushing the pragmatic, outward-looking foreign policy that--as the hard-liners see it--has led to permissiveness and the emergence of troublesome dissenters at home.

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