The World: Spain: The Right Clamps Down

A Spaniard visiting Moscow stops at the Kremlin wall, where his Russian host takes him to view Lenin's remains. "We have one like that," shrugs the Spaniard. "But he sits up and talks." That Madrid joke about ailing Generalissimo Francisco Franco, 82, would be merely crude were it not for the fact that it reflects a deep-rooted bitterness. After 35 years of living under a dictatorial regime notable mostly for its rigid stability, many Spaniards these days are worried about both the erratic course of the Franco regime and el Caudillo 's ability to run the country.

Spaniards have grown increasingly restive...

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