Communists Out in the Open

"The [Civil] War is history," said Spain's Communist Party Boss Santiago Carrillo. He was addressing the party's 152-member Central Committee, which last week met on Spanish soil for the first time in 38 years. In perhaps his most daring move since becoming head of Spain's second post-Franco government nine months ago, reform-minded Premier Adolfo Suarez had legalized the Communist Party, declaring it qualified to participate in the national elections set last week for June 15.

News of the party's legalization was so unexpected that Radio Nacional's announcer actually sputtered the words of the communique. Within hours, caravans of honking cars, draped with red flags, snaked through the streets of Madrid. Jubilant leftists sang militant choruses of the long-banned Internationale, and a huge PARTIDO COMUNISTA DE ESPANA sign was posted outside party headquarters. Suarez's action was generally applauded by Spain's left and center politicians, who regarded the lifting of the ban as a litmus of the regime's commitment to democracy.

Predictable Shock. But King Juan Carlos and his Premier had their own reasons for favoring legalization of the party. For one thing, many Western European nations have hinted that an election without Communist participation would be regarded as a farce; Madrid desperately wants closer economic and political ties with the European Community. For another thing, if the Communists were not legalized they would have attempted mass demonstrations and fomented labor unrest during the campaign. Widespread pre-election chaos could have discredited Suarez's reform program and encouraged the ultrarightists, who oppose Juan Carlos' determination to guide his country toward parliamentary democracy.

Right-wingers were predictably shocked by the legalization of the party. Some ultrarightists, shouting "Arriba Espana!" (Up with Spain! the old nationalist rallying cry), rode through Madrid in an auto caravan of their own. Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Franco's former Information and Tourism Minister and leader of the powerful rightist party Alianza Popular, thundered, "What has happened is an authentic coup d 'etat that has transformed reform into rupture."

The most worrisome signs of protest came from the armed forces. Admiral Gabriel Pita da Veiga y Sanz, 68 --the only member of the Cabinet who had also served under Franco--angrily resigned as Navy Minister, telling Suarez that he could not sit in a government that had legalized Communists. There were fears that a number of other senior officers would follow him out of the government. But at a stormy 3 1/2-hour meeting of the Superior Council of the Army, the hard-liners backed down; the officers expressed their "revulsion" at the government's action, but they agreed to accept it out of a sense of "patriotism."

At the party's Central Committee meeting last week, Carrillo pledged that the Communists would "abide by the rules of the democratic game. Some reproach us for what they call a moderate policy line ... but the path is narrow and any thoughtless act, any attitude that does not take reality into account could provoke catastrophic reactions for Spain and for democracy." Wary of fueling rightist anger, the party, cautiously, canceled a mass rally scheduled for early this week. The party's legendary heroine, Dolores ("La Pasionaria") Ibarruri, also was forced to delay her return to Spain from a long exile in Moscow.

During the campaign, Carrillo's Communists will stress their independence from Moscow, their support for Spain's entry into the European Community, and their acceptance of U.S. military bases in Spain (as long as the Soviets have troops in Eastern Europe). The party hopes to win as much as 12% of the vote--a figure that some observers feel is exaggerated. One immediate problem the party faces is how to raise the estimated $15 million it needs to wage an effective election campaign. While much of the money will undoubtedly come from special assessments of its members (250,000, according to Communist claims), a portion of it probably will arrive in disguised form from Eastern Europe.

Somewhat to the right of the Communists, the Socialist Worker Party may garner close to 20%, while Fraga's rightist, neo-Franquista Alianza Popular is expected to poll a quarter of the vote. The most fluid situation is in the center. There the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and a broad coalition called Centro Democratico are still discussing whether to enter the election as a bloc. Their decision partly depends on whether Suarez chooses to head such a centrist alliance in order to blunt some of Fraga's appeal. The Premier, however, can sit out the election. As a direct appointee of the King, Suarez has a mandate for five years; thus unless Juan Carlos sacks him, the Premier keeps his office until mid-1981 no matter who wins.

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