The politics of force vs. the force of solidarity: francoism and antifrancoism in 1960s Italy

Abstract

In Italy, during the 1960s, the reasons of the antifrancoism were conquering an high public profile: they were supported by left-wing parties, labour unions, prestigious intellectuals and even remarkable catholic sectors. The francoist regime, through its diplomacy, attempted to confront the growing protest partially abandoning the discourse about its «legitimacy of origin», based on the victory in the Civil War, and emphasizing its «legitimacy of exercise», based on modernization and economic development. Neverthless, this attempt was called into question because of the serious and repeated repressive episodes that, from the Conill and Grimau's cases until the Burgos Trial, in Italy aroused a growing movement of solidarity with the spanish democratic cause.