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been initiated, as the transition from one-party authoritarianism to
functioning democracy guided Spain toward the political center. The
old Falangists yielded with little more than grumbling, while the newly-
enfranchised Communists displayed surprising restraint.
What seemed to be the moment that most Spaniards had dreaded
came in 1981 as a contingent of the paramilitary Civil Guard seized
control of the legislative chamber in Madrid, fired shots into the ceiling,
and proclaimed over national television that they would hold the depu-
ties hostage until unspecified changes were made. Amid fears that this
was merely a prelude to a full-fledged military coup, the king went on
the air to reassert the primacy of law and constitution and call upon his
people to stand by the new Spain in this crisis. Most important of all he
addressed a special message to the armed forces reminding them of
their oath of loyalty to him and the nation and commanding them to
refrain from any illegal action. Whatever support for a coup existed in
the army quickly evaporated, and several generals who had issued pre-
liminary orders for action hastily revoked them.
In 1982, confirmed in their commitment to democracy, Spaniards
went to the polls in a parliamentary election fought on issues of eco-
nomic policy and sociocultural evolution and gave a majority of their
votes to the Socialist Party. For the first time in nearly half a century
they had freely chosen a government of the Left. Many among them
could scarcely believe what had been achieved, for they had not only
moved their nation in a political direction long repudiated by its leaders
but those who adhered to parties of the Right calmly accepted the
majority decision and prepared to work within the normal political
process for their own goals during the next electoral cycle. Spain had,
in short, assumed its place in the modern European system. It had not
only abandoned the Franquist past; it had essentially abandoned its
whole tradition of authoritarianism.
Felipe González, leader of the Socialist Workers Party of Spain
(PSOE), had established his credentials as a dynamic and charismatic
politician in the southern region of Andalusia. These positive qualities,
added to the sheer excitement generated by the first complete victory
for the Left in so many decades, created a momentum that took some
time to grind to a halt. New freedoms in cultural life, affiliation with
international bodies such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) and the European Union, and schemes for nationalization and
social welfare were generally welcomed. Conservatives might denounce
them as, respectively, godless immorality, subordination to foreign
interests, and creeping communism, but they remained in a minority,
at least for the time being. It was rather from the Left itself that the
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