[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
This was sort of an odd case, and I hope Nava or one of our other Spanish members can correct as necessary and fill in more details. What I read was that, years before Franco’s death there was a plebiscite in which the Spanish people voted to become a monarchy upon Franco’s death. What makes this odd, in my view, is that this election clearly had to be sanctioned by Franco and, moreover, he obviously felt no inclination to repudiate the result. So it’s a case of a fascist dictator who seemed to have no particular concern that the state as he ruled it should continue after his death.
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Um, this is kind of a “yes and no” situation. Juan Carlos’s grandfather, King Alphonso XIII, was deposed in 1931, and replaced by a republic. The republic, however, had two strikes against it: 1. It was consistently run by leftist parties, and to the significant right wing of Spain, well, think of the absolute worst rants you’ve ever heard by ultraconservatives, and multiply by four. 2. There was quite a bit of incompetence and/or corruption, so that the various ministries serving under the republic became less and less effective. Net result was that the Army, under Franco, revolted beginning in 1936. By spring 1939 the outcome was certain.
But Franco, while exercising dictatorial power and strongly supported by the Falangistas (Spain’s variant on Fascism), did not couch his government as equivalent to Hitler’s or Mussolini’s. Rather, as Generalisimo of the Army and Caudillo of the State, he was the regent for the restored monarchy. But, like Admiral Horthy in Hungary (and the Stewards of Gondor), having a vacant throne to point to as the source of his authority suited Franco. The surviving Borbons (Alfonso and his son Don Juan) were, in general, not interested in giving Franco’s regime legitimacy, and he did not want a monarch not content to be merely a figurehead.
However, take note that the theory, the legal-fiction convention, was that Spain was a monarchy, presently governed by “faithful servant of the crown Francisco Franco” during an unfortunately prolonged interregnum. Though this was out of line with the political reality, it continued to be the patriotic myth underlying that reality.
Don Juan’s grandson Juan Carlos, however, was a different breed of cat. He ingratiated himself with the aging Franco, hinting that he would continue the policies of the Franco regime, and in general set himself up as a pretender with a real chance to return to the throne.
Accordingly, there was a decree (1968 IIRC) that on Franco’s death or resignation, Juan Carlos would ascend the throne. (I don’t recall one way or the other about whether there was a plebiscite.) And in 1975 this indeed happened – but Juan Carlos surprised everyone and turned it into a representative modern constitutional monarchy.
