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Three policemen died; a fourth remained in critical condition at week's end. At the funeral for the three patrolmen, thousands of angry police booed Premier Arias. "You wanted to open Spain up politically, and this is the price we are paying!" the officers shouted at the weeping Premier. "Resign! If you have any honor left, resign!"
While the Premier will almost certainly retain his post, all hope seems gone for any new liberalizing initiatives in the near future. Every day brings the country closer to that inevitable moment when Franco will no longer be able to rule. In theory, the succession is well established; in 1969 Prince Juan Carlos, now 37, was designated Franco's heir in a restored monarchy. Yet even when he is given his crown, it will be questionable whether he will also acquire Franco's ability to divide and rule the coalition of rightist groups that has run Spain since the Civil War: hard-line Falangists, conservative Catholics, reformist technocrats and the military.
Without a strong government in the post-Franco period, there is the danger of a violent clash of extremists. Leading the extreme right would be the Falange, backed by reactionary youth groups like the Guerrillas of Christ the King. On the extreme left would be fringe groups like the FRAP and the increasingly important Junta Democrática. Although the Junta claims to be a broad-based organization containing leftists and centrists, U.S. experts believe that it is merely a front for the outlawed Spanish Communist Party and is controlled by Party First Secretary Santiago Carrillo, who lives in exile in Paris.
Spanish moderates fear that the Junta has already infiltrated some of the country's most important trade unions and key professional groups. The Basque separatists would probably back the radical left in a clash with the right.
The possibility of violence among the factions terrifies most Spaniards and thus makes it more remote. Although 70% of Spain's population today is under 40, even younger Spaniards who did not go through the three-year Civil War have heard too many tales about it to want the kind of violence that could once again turn family against family as well as jeopardize the economic and social gains of the past 15 years. At the outbreak of the civil war, the middle class accounted for only 18% of the population; today it is about 50%—some 16 million people with a big stake in political stability.
Franco may be able to protect that stake if he quickly takes bolder steps to prepare the political transition and allows some moderate opposition forces to participate in the government.
One course to bring about a smoother transfer of power might be for Franco to step down soon and use his enormous prestige to help a fledgling government get established. More terrorism within Spain and continued ostracism by the rest of Europe may well convince el Caudillo that he is still indispensable and must remain at his post until a possibly bitter end.