How did Spain's Transition begin after Franco died?
Franco dies and the Transition begins
Muere Franco y empieza la Transición
20 November 1975–15 June 1977. Francisco Franco died in Madrid on 20 November 1975, after thirty-six years in power.
Where: Spain, Madrid
What happened
Francisco Franco died in Madrid on 20 November 1975, after thirty-six years in power. Two days later Juan Carlos de Borbón, whom Franco had chosen as his successor, was proclaimed king. Many expected the dictatorship to go on; instead the king appointed Adolfo Suárez prime minister in July 1976, and a law approved by referendum that December opened the way to democracy. Parties were legalised, the Communist Party among them, and the first free general elections since 1936 were held on 15 June 1977. Historians still argue over what the Transition achieved and what it left unsaid.
Say it
Franco murió el 20 de noviembre de 1975.
Franco died on 20 November 1975.
Why it matters
The Transition made Spain a democracy without a revolution and was studied across Latin America in the 1980s as the way out of dictatorship; its pact of silence about the past is what Spain has been arguing about since.
Read about it
Culture
Connected
- The Spanish Civil War (17 July 1936–1 April 1939)
- The Spanish Civil War (17 July 1936–1 April 1939)
- The coup of 11 September 1973 in Chile (11 September 1973–11 March 1990)
- The return to democracy (1977–1990)
- The Constitution of 1978 (6 December 1978)
- The Constitution of 1978 (6 December 1978)
- The coup attempt of 23-F (23–24 February 1981)
- The coup attempt of 23-F (23–24 February 1981)
- Franco is moved from the Valley of the Fallen (24 October 2019)
Sources
- Biografía de S.M. el Rey Don Juan Carlos — Casa de S.M. el Rey
- 15 de junio de 1977: línea de salida hacia la Constitución — Congreso de los Diputados (blog)
- Ley 20/2022, de 19 de octubre, de Memoria Democrática (preámbulo) — Boletín Oficial del Estado