The Spanish Civil War, until rather recently, was airbrushed out of the Spanish school curriculum and it was the topic of very few books and films. Even the Spanish academics agree that the most knowledgeable people on the Civil War are the British historians Antony Beevor and Paul Preston. The latter I have interviewed a number of times and he agrees that, deep down, Spain is still a Republican country. The previous monarchs, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, were extremely popular (and still are) for a number of reasons.
It was Juan Carlos who presided over the transition to democracy and, on the whole, most Spaniards were what became known as "Juan Carlistas" as opposed to monarchists, fans of him but not the institution and that is the battle King Felipe VI and his wife Letizia, who does her best to appeal to the masses but struggles, are still trying to win.
But, as we have seen over the past few days just here in Palma, the Republicans have been out flying the celebrations of the 85th anniversary of the Second Republic, with Palma Council allowing Republican flags to be flown from some of its offices - remember there are Republicans in government now.
And there is the row over the demolition of the Sa Feixina monument to Balearic Nationalist sailors who died in the Civil War. This is good for Spain because they are now learning and talking about their modern history. I am not too sure about the monarchy, however.
A country of Republicans
15/04/2016 00:00
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Fair enough. My comment was that given half the chance,King Philip V1 could be a good King and seemed more in tune with public sentiment than his father who totally lost touch during the last years of his reign,much like Prince Charles who totally lost the plot years ago and can bore for England.
My apologies to Sean Dobson who placed a comment here. I was cleaning spam messages out, Sean, and hit delete on yours by complete accident. Nothing to do with saying that Prince Charles could bore for England !!!
600 people congregated in Plaza Cort to celebrate the anniversary of the Republic which means 428.000 didn't. Most Spanish are fed up to the back teeth reading and hearing about the second republic. They want to move on and look to the future not like the minority parties that use it as a propoganda vehicle to get themselves in the newspapers. And asking Paul Preston for an unbiased opinion about Spain, Franco and the Repiblic is like asking a Yorkshireman for his opinion about cricket.