Francoists strengthened by Spanish election

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Never been either their bias towards the irregular- forces or their technical incomnot been petence • since the days of The results Spain's second general election since the death of Franco are on the surface almost a carbon copy of the results of June 1977.

The ' ruling •Democratic Centre Union (UCD), led by Francoist Premier Adolfo Suarez, gained two seats in the Congress; so did the largest opposition party, the Socialist Party (PSOE).

Yet these apparently undramatic results were nonetheless a clear triumph for Suarez and the UCD who will now almost certainly continue with the existing UCD government.

And it is a triumph which was handed on a plate to Suarez by the leaders of the main workers' parties and in particular by the PSOE under the leadership of Felipe Gonzalez.

First of all, this is because the results were substantially different from what had been predicted in the widely publicised opinion polls which put the UCD and the PSOE almost neck and neck and even held out the prospect of the PSOE becoming the majority party in the Congress.

Second there is no doubt, as Felipe Gonzalez admitted in his • post-election press conference, that the election had allowed the UCD to emerge as an organised political party of the right in place of the incompetent ad hoc coalition which it appeared in the June 1977 The UCD still leaned heavily on the cult of the personality of its leader Adolfo Suarez-the man who was once one of the highest functionaries of. Franco's dictatorship and who now projects himself as the bringer of democracy.

Limited rights

Of.course, the UCD continued to be assisted in these elections by the severe limitations still placed on democratic rights in Spain.

A number of candidacies of the left wing and the nationalistș were of parties which remain illegal by decision of the Ministry of the Interior.

The candidacies were permitted but the parties behind them are not:

The electoral system discriminates strongly against the cities in which the workers' parties have a majority and in favour of the old Francoist strongholds in the less industrial provinces.

UCD's 35% of the votes is thus converted into 49% of the seats: in the Congress (lower house) and about 60% in the Senate (which under the new constitution plays a crucial role in constitutional change).

The UCD's consolidation was partly at the expense of the more openly right wing Democratic Coalition (in the last election the Popular Alliance) led by Franco's once trusted censor Manuel Fraga.

As Minister of the interior after Franco's death Fraga was responsible for scores of murders of Spanish workers.

The Democratic Coalition lost 3% of votes and seven seats. But one of these was gained by the openly fascist New Force led by Blas Pinar.

Pinar's group got 2% of the total national vote compared with a mere 0.4% in 1977.

Ballot rigging Some of the UCD's votes (though possibly less than in June 1977) came from the time-honoured ballot-rigging practices of the Spanish ruling class.

The final results of the June UCD PSOE CP Democratic Coalition Convergence and Unity (Catalan nationalists) Socialist Party of Andalucia Basque Nationalist Party National Unity (New Force) Herri Batasuna Others 1977 elections have n announced • because number of charges of ities which have still resolved.

This year there were, as expectea, many reports of the voting papers of left-wing candidacies not being available, of priests and landlords threatening excommunication or eviction for the "wrong" vote and so on.

But the UCD realised long ago that one of its potential trump cards in its game of restricted democracy was control of the mass media in particular the state radio and television.

These have continued without the smallest change-in CP symbol of the Spanish % votes 1979 Gonzalez-he knows all wrinkles! the of the government and the armed TV coverage The "liberal" bourgeois daily paper El Pais published each day of the campaign a quantitative analysis of the TV coverage of each party • in the The final calculation showed that of all the time devoted on news programmes to the elections, the UCD and its candidates received a staggering 97%1 This gave the UCD several hours of party political broadcast in addition to those allotted to all the parties with a certain minimum number of candidates.

The UCD also controlled these-and several of the left wing or nationalist parties had their broadcasts delayed, censored or cancelled because of "unacceptable" references to the armed forces or the national unity of the Spanish state.

The PSOE's humiliation was not only at the hands of the UCD but also at the hands of parties widely regarded as being to its left. % votes 1977 2y Seats 1979 Boycotted Seats 1977 The Communist Party gained votes from the PSOE and increased its representation in the Congress from 20 to 23 seats.

Public admirer

This, of course, will also please Suarez since CP leader Santiago Carrillo has always been one of his greatest public admirers.

There is little doubt that the UCD has come to look on the CP as its greatest potential ally since Stalinist political contro of the Workers Commissions is much firmer than the Stalinist leadership's political control of the rival union federation, the UGT.

While nationaily the PSOE's hoped-for support was significantly eroded by the CP, in two regions-Andalucia in the south and Euskadi (the Basque provinces) in the north-it was shaken from more unexpected sources.

In Andalucia the regionalist Socialist Party of Andalucia (PSA), which unlike most other small Social Democratic parties in the last two years, has strenuously refused to incorporate itself in the PSOE, won an astonishing five seats compared with none in the last election:

More hostile The PSA puts on a "left" face in relation to the PSOE and ran a campaign which was much more hostile, to the Surez regime than was the PSOE's:

The PSA also gained from the growth of national feeling in Andalucia since the advent of the new constitution which gives formal rights to a degree of regional "autonomy" something less than that possessed by a British district douncil.

But the most striking and important reaction to the UCD's efforts (supported by the PSOE and the CP) to strangle movements towards genuine national autonomy came in the northern Basque provinces.

in the 1977 elections the political party representing the more "moderate" wing of ETA (ETA political military) stood candidates with the Maoist Communist Movement and gained one member of the But the parties connected with the more uncompromising sector of ETA (ETA-military.) boycotted the elections.

in the meantime the right wing Basque Nationalist Party, the UCD ard the main workers' parties (PSOE and the CP) have run a massive reactionary campaign against ETA terrorism which, they have tried to argue, has no popular support.

The results of these elections in Euskadi decisively give the lie to this claim and show that the anti-ETA campaign has been completely ineffective.

In these elections both wings of ETA had candidacies in the Basque provinces. Euskadiko Eskerra (the left of the Euskadi) was closely linked to ETA political military and Herri Batasuna (Popular Unity) to ETA-military. BADASTHAT Between them' these two candidacies received between 10 and 30 percent of the vote in the four Basque provinces and obtained three deputies and one senator.

And the bulk of these votes went to the more radical Herri Basasuna-one of whose slogans was 'Independence and Socíalism"-which was clearly identified with those who have killed a member of the police or military on average every three days since the beginning of the year.

In one of the four provinces Guipuzcoa, the two ETA candidacies got significantly more votes than even the right wing Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).

The PNV, however, remains the largest electoral party in Euskadi which implies that nationalist parties of various kinds have a majority in Euskadi as a whole.

Failed This, following the massive abstention in the constitutional referendum • last December, means that one of the results of these elections is the comfirmation that the Suarez regime has failed completely to hold back the rising tide of Basque nationalism.

And it is not only the UCD which suffered electorally in Euskadi but also the PSOE and the CP which have become increasingly identified with Madrid and national oppression.

In next week's Socialist Press we will assess the political nature of the nationalist parties, the election campaigns of the parties of the left and the implications of the results for the main workers' parties. Suarez

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