In Total Recall, the 1990 hit film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone, a liberation movement confronts tyranny on the planet Mars. The leader of the rebels, Quato, is completely inaccessible to the authorities, who watch in frustration as his legend grows and more and more walls are painted with the phrase “Quato lives.” The truth is that the rebel leader may or may not be alive, but it doesn’t matter because he has become a myth. In fact, Quato dies, but Arnold saves the day and frees Mars from oppression. I’m not sure if Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in his infinite narcissism, imagines himself as a kind of Schwarzenegger single-handedly defeating the Francoist hordes trying to rob us of our right to a dead-end job, to live in a shared apartment until retirement, or to have to emigrate because starting a business here is impossible, but like the protagonist of Total Recall, he is forging a myth.
Francisco Franco died in bed on November 20, 1975, almost 50 years ago, but thanks to Sánchez and his Socialist Party acolytes, he is more alive than ever. Five years ago, in October 2019, the government exhumed Franco’s body from the Valley of the Fallen (later doing the same with the Falange founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera) and reburied it in the municipal cemetery of Mingorrubio-El Pardo, where he now rests alongside his wife, Carmen Polo; curiously, this was the General’s wish.
Since then, the government of Pedro Sánchez has relentlessly used Franco as a joker to deflect attention from the countless corruption scandals in his party, while accusations of Francoism or proposals to “resignify” the Valley of the Fallen (renamed the Valley of Cuelgamuros by the Law of Democratic Memory) have been deployed with astonishing ease. The Valley has been the object of a furious campaign by the most radical leftists, who seem intent on tearing down the largest cross in the world—some things never change. Sánchez himself was photographed in April surrounded by skulls at one of the exhumations in the Valley, where more than 30,000 fallen from both sides of the Civil War are buried.
But as with everything this government does, one must always expect worse.
“Fascism, which we thought we had left behind, is already the third political force in Europe,” Pedro Sánchez condemned with gravity when he announced the hundred—yes, the hundred—actions to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Franco’s death. Not even the most pro-Franco people have talked so much about the past. In an anti-Franco rally held on January 8th at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, in the presence of PSOE and Socialist ministers, Sánchez presented Francoism as a dark age of intolerance, pointing out that today, the Spanish GDP per capita is twice what it was in 1975, and that the average income has more than doubled, rising from €15,000 to €31,000. This is, of course, a half-truth, because Sánchez conveniently ignores the fact that public debt has multiplied over the past fifty years, meaning that, in reality, Spaniards are poorer than before. But the leftist narrative does not care about the data (which, as we all know, are extreme right-wing), no, only the message matters: Fascism is back; only Sánchez can save us.
Stirring up the ghosts of the past may pay off, but it does not seem to resonate with young people. According to a Center for Sociological Research (CIS) survey, in the last European elections, VOX was the party with the highest support among young first-time voters, and, to the surprise of many, more and more young people have lost their fear of openly declaring themselves right-wing. There are also an increasing number of reports of left-wing teachers being outraged by the Francoist sympathies of their students. This is not really an ideological issue; what is happening is that young people, fed up with progressive indoctrination, have discovered that mentioning Franco provokes the same reaction from their teachers as holy water provokes from vampires. For these reasons, the celebrations of Franco’s death will include contests, exhibitions, comics, and games for the youngest. There will even be “itinerant escape rooms” (Francoist zombies?).
The strategy of confrontation has deep roots in the Spanish Left, and the truth is that it has been successful in mobilizing its electorate by raising the spectre of the return of fascism or the comeback of Franco. However, Pedro Sánchez’ obsession with Franco and everything tied to him is sparking a renewed interest in the past that could backfire on a Left that has much to hide about its role in the Civil War and dictatorship. As shrewd politicians in the worst sense, they are blinded by short-term gains, failing to see the long-term consequences of all this agitational propaganda. Sánchez, who undoubtedly saw himself as Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon, should heed the danger of creating a myth and recall the slave who accompanied the victorious generals in their triumphal entry into Rome, constantly whispering: “Remember that you are mortal.” Yes, Pedro, remember that you, too, will pass away like everyone else—but myths never die.
