The last shot of the bunker

PalmIt was October 1975. Franco was dying, and so was his regime, although it would take almost two years for it to give way to a democratic system. Precisely at that moment, like a kind of swansong, Franco's regime took its final steps, with demonstrations against Europe protesting the death sentences imposed on two members of ETA and three from the Anti-Franco Revolutionary Front (FRAP). It is now fifty years since the mobilizations, also in the Balearic Islands, that were fostered by the "búnker," the most intransigent sector of Franco's regime.

On September 27, 1975, ETA militants Anjel Otaegi and Jon Paredes were shot, accused of terrorism. Txiki and the FRAP activists José Humberto Baena, Ramón García Sanz, and José Luis Sánchez Bravo. This generated a wave of indignation in Western Europe, where Spain was the last dictatorship: Portugal had fallen a year earlier due to the Carnation Revolution. The image of the then Swedish Prime Minister, the socialist Olof Palme (later assassinated), begging on the street with a piggy bank for the obviously illegal opponents of Francoism became emblematic.

Suddenly, all this was attributed to the everlasting 'Judeo-Masonic conspiracy,' and the most hardline Francoists mobilized on the streets. The moment was opportune, since the following October 1st marked one of the great holidays in the dictatorship's calendar: the 'Exaltation'—as they called it—of Franco as head of the state, that is, when on that date in 1936 he was appointed leader of the coup plotters.

Madrid's Plaza de Oriente was the scene of Franco's last public appearance, less than two months before his death, accompanied by the then Prince of Spain and future King Juan Carlos, who was supposed to be his successor—in doing so, he deceived the dictator, just as he later deceived all those he deceived. It is assumed that a million people attended to express their support for Franco and his crimes, although it is highly doubtful that that many people could fit in that space.

"We will kill you, you red bastard"

Who invented the term 'bunker' to refer to all those who wanted everything to remain "firm and firm"? The prominent Mallorcan journalist Jacint Planas Sanmartí claimed it was him, when he was a contributor to the progressive weekly TriumphThe truth is that the term caught on. The comedian Forges drew a cartoon featuring the cement bunker, from which only the comments of its defenders emerged. In the Valencian Region, a manifestly anti-Catalanist sector, also known as "blaveros" (blade-like)—because of the blue stripe that differentiates the territory's flag from the four stripes common to the Crown of Aragon—became known as the "búnker shantytown."

At that time, as Miquel Payeras points out, the bunker was experiencing "its sweetest moment" in the Balearic Islands. Not surprisingly, the civil governor—who held all the powers of the state in his hands; there was no autonomy or anything like it back then—was the ineffable Carlos De Meer. His preferences were crystal clear, since in January of that same year, 1975, Blas Piñar, the leader of Fuerza Nueva, a manifestly intransigent party, had accompanied the table at a rally in Palma. The favorite pastime of Franco's viceroy—besides banning all kinds of activities—was playing war games, simulating military actions with his comrades in neighborhoods of Ciutat like Son Rapinya.

Under De Meer's aegis, the "bunker" began to cut off the heads of those who, despite being part of the regime, were suspected of "aperturismo," as it was then called. In September 1975, the deputy provincial leader of the Movement, Llorenç Oliver, fell for being too "open." Many years later, he would become Minister of Transport under Gabriel Cañellas. The future mayor of Palma, Paulí Buchens, had to resign as local leader of Ciutat due to his disagreement with the governor. The one they couldn't get their hands on was Josep Melià, that strange procurator of the Francoist Cortes who declared himself a social democrat and whom De Meer directly described as a "red."

Planas Sanmartí asserted that, unlike in Madrid, where the bunker was "dangerous," his followers in the Balearic Islands "were even good people." Perhaps not all of them were. Prominent progressive figures such as Llorenç Capellà, Sebastià Verd, Antoni Tarabini, Andreu Manresa, and Antoni Serra, among others, were the target of phone calls in which they were told: "We'll kill you, you red bastard" or similar threats. The Tous bookstore, run by Serra himself, was the victim of graffiti with the Nazi symbol and the phrase "Alert, reds!" Mallorca Diary, too liberal for his liking, suffered three attacks and a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the car of its director, Antonio Alemany.

The corresponding demonstration of support for the regime, in Palma, took place on that same October 1, 1975. The Honderos Patriotic Group called for participation, probably unaware that the descendants of the legendary 'foneros', converted to Islam, had practically disappeared with about two thousand people, with cries like "Reds, murderers", "Reds on the wall" "ETA no, Falange yes"Or, perhaps most bizarrely, "Invade Portugal" – perhaps in retaliation for having abandoned the joys of dictatorship in favor of a corrupt democracy?

"Olof Palme is gay"

Governor De Meer, who was known for being so quick to say it, took the opportunity to denounce the conspiracy "against Spain that has been going on for over a hundred years" by countries "whose presidents generally belong to socialist parties." Those executions constituted "a much stricter justice and much more in accordance with natural law" than that practiced in those states where there was no democracy and freedom, as they claimed, but rather "libertinage" and "tyranny."

Menorca was the next stop on the tour of the governor, with another rally that took place in Mahón on the 9th, after a mass in Sant Francesc. De Meer outdid himself: "We are younger than the rotten democracies. We can tolerate many things, but none from Sweden, whose head of government, Olof Palme [the one with the piggy bank] is homosexual." A few hundred Menorcans participated in that mobilization.

These were not the only demonstrations of support for the regime that took place in the Islands those days. On October 3, in Palma, a motorcade – aboard some two hundred cars – made its way to the Plaza de Cort, displaying Spanish flags and banners in favor of the Leader. That same day, in Mahón, graffiti along the same lines appeared outside the Italian consulate, which was not in vain among the most active countries in the protests against Franco.

On October 14, it was the turn of the young people, or rather, the teenagers, to mobilize. Around two hundred students gathered at the gates of the Institut Ramon Llull, under close police surveillance, lest they lose their objective. They then headed to the Joan Alcover, then a girls' high school, where they sang the Facing the Sun and invited the girls to join the march, which some of them did. The demonstration made stops at the barracks of the Civil Guard and the then Armed Police, continuing to the Plaza de Cort, where the mayor, Rafael de la Rosa, invited those present to pray an Our Father for the victims of terrorism.

The true popular support for intransigent Francoism, however, soon became clear that it was nothing special. In the first democratic elections since the Second Republic, those of June 1977, a group along these lines, the Círculo José Antonio (José Antonio Circle)—named after the founder of the Falange—ran in Congress for the Balearic Islands and finished last of all the candidates, with only 1,195 votes, 0.36% of all votes.

Since then, and throughout the current democratic period, Franco nostalgics haven't had much of a presence, either in the Islands or in the country as a whole. It's true that the far right has now regained strength, but, by comparison, it's possible that those "bunquerians" found them too "open-minded." Who knows.

Information prepared from texts by Joan Mas Quetglas, Miguel Payeras, Antoni Serra, Miguel Rosselló, Antoni Nadal, Llorenç Carrió, the collective volume Living memory and the newspapers of the time Breaking News, Mallorca Diary, Balearics and Ibiza Diary.