23F: Who benefited from the coup?
23F: Who benefited from the coup?
Was King Juan Carlos involved in the 23F coup d’état? Did he have anything to do with it, directly or indirectly? These questions have been floating around in the air for the last decade. Let us remember that, until recently, the image of Juan Carlos I saving democracy was still unquestioned. It has only been in the last ten or twelve years that this version has really been called into question.
What was going on in Spain between the years between the proclamation of the Spanish constitution and the coup d’état of February 1981?
What happened on the surface is documented. The democratic system began to move forward, slowly and with more enthusiasm than success. But nonetheless, it was going forward. Under the leadership of Adolfo Suarez, a series of reforms aimed at bringing the Spanish system into line with that of neighbouring states were set in motion. Perhaps the most talked-about reform was the legalisation of the communist party, something that deeply displeased those most nostalgic for the regime.
But what was going on behind the scenes in the most exclusive circles, coming directly from the dictatorship? Military, police, ex-ministers, judges and prosecutors, senior civil servants, aristocrats, bishops and priests, loyal bankers and businessmen? All those who benefited from forty years of dictatorship, racketeering, autarchy, expropriations, abuses of all kinds, nepotism, clientelism? How did they react in those decisive years? Were they in favour of democracy or against it? Or perhaps they felt total contempt or indifference for that masses phenomenon that had nothing to do with their reality? Probably a bit of both.
When we talk about corruption today, we tend to refer to corrupt politicians in pejorative terms. Sometimes we even go as far as to exaggerate, saying that all politicians are, to some extent, corrupt. But we rarely look at the other side of the equation, the corrupters. Corruption benefits the corrupt, but not only the them…
The Tejero coup is a bit like that. We fix our gaze on the protagonists: the lieutenant-colonel with tricorn and pistol, the civil guards who accompany him, the general involved, the colonel who takes the tanks out onto the street. Even the king who, eventually, publicly announces that the game is over. But who is behind all these people? Who is behind the king, behind the military, behind the accomplices?
I don’t think anyone would question the fact that most of the military, at that time, wanted some action. But the military alone was not enough. More support was needed. Money was needed, international support, moral strength was needed, the coup had to succeed and the subsequent regime had to survive. And this, after the last few years of decrepit Francoism, plus the birth of democracy, was not so easy. It required the support of the king, yes, but also of the rest of the elites. And what the members of these elites did, said, thought and decided, we still do not know much about.
Probably the aim of the military, or at least the majority of them, was to regain power by force. But many of the elites were aware that the autarchy had left the country lagging far behind the rest of the world, and that if it suddenly opened up to the outside world, floods of investors would rush in, as they actually ended up doing. Incidentally, it might be worth reviewing how this “transition” was carried out. Most of these VIPs would probably also have enthusiastically welcomed the establishment of a dictatorship disguised as democracy, which would have allowed them to access the markets and continue, as if nothing had happened, at the domestic level.
But all this is perhaps just a digression. For now, this is a universe that remains inaccessible to ordinary mortals. And all we can do is just speculate. Probably, one day, who knows if in fifteen or twenty years’ time, someone will open some dusty boxes, an archive, more forgotten than hidden, and new data will change everything.
23F: 23 February 1981, Antonio Tejero’s attempted coup
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