Franco's Gray Men

In Spain the generations are separated not by a gap but a chasm. There seems to be no bridge at all between those Spaniards born after the Civil War, who hope to slowly modernize the country, and those born before it, who adhere to the rigid ideals of 81-year-old Dictator Francisco Franco. In the wake of the assassination of President Luis Carrero Blanco by Basque extremists last month, the chasm seems likely to grow wider still.

Carrero's successor, Carlos Arias Navarro, last week drastically reshuffled the Cabinet, throwing out the technocrats in favor of men, mostly in their 50s and 60s, who are known mainly for their: fanatical loyalty to el Caudillo. "They are a group of gray men whose thinking stopped with the Civil War in 1936," laments an opposition spokesman. "They are a very dull lot."

The chief casualty was Opus Dei, the politically oriented Catholic movement whose members can take much of the credit for modernizing Spain's economy. Carrero Blanco had fired all but one Opus Dei minister. Arias Navarro completed the process last week, replacing the one remaining representative of Opus Dei, Foreign Minister Laureano Lopez Rodo, with Spain's Ambassador to France, Pedro Cortina.

Franco's new regime effectively finishes Opus Dei as a power in Spanish politics, at least for the immediate future. It dashes the hopes of Opus Dei and Spain's newly emerging industrialists that their country will join the Common Market. The Market has demanded that Madrid meet certain "democratic conditions" before it can become a member--conditions that Franco and Arias firmly repudiated.

Franco's choice of Arias Navarro, who headed the national security police for eight years over more moderate candidates, seemed to signal his belief that the solution to Spain's problems is more repression. In his annual year-end TV address to the people, el Caudillo went out of his way to scotch rumors that he himself might retire. "Spain has always counted on my dedication, which will not be failing," said Franco, who betrayed his age in slurred, indistinct words. "My entire life has been, is and will be in the service of the Spanish."

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