With José María Aznar's absolute majority in 2000, a process of ideological rearmament of the Spanish right began, reconnecting it with its nationalist or ultranationalist tradition. This tradition has its most immediate antecedent in Francoism, but also has roots in the Falange, the CEDA, and Lerrouxism. Regarding Francoism, the People's Party (PP) is aware of its umbilical connection, which began with the founding of the People's Alliance (AP) under the leadership of Fraga Iribarne and five other former ministers of the Francoist dictatorship. In 2002, Aznar issued a condemnation of the 1936 coup attempt and the Francoist dictatorship (a condemnation echoed by Pablo Casado in 2021), albeit ambiguous, accompanied by opportune nods to the hard right, referring to "concord" and "the victims."
While rhetorically condemning Francoism, Aznar promoted its recovery on several levels: support for the Francisco Franco Foundation and denialist historiography, multiplication and intensification of the presence of symbols of the unity of Spain – in particular, the flag – throughout the state territory and in any area (especially sports). think tank, the FAES Foundation, which is responsible for developing doctrine to fuel the ultranationalist discourses of a majority and very influential part of the Madrid press.
An ideological offensive that has taken place within the parameters that Aznar himself set out in his seven famous articles of 1979 in the newspaper The New Rioja, in which he harshly questioned the Constitution recently voted on in referendum with arguments such as the following (I will not translate it because Aznar's prose is better in the original version): "As the Constitution is currently written, we Spaniards do not know if our economy will be free market or, on the contrary, will slide down dangerous slopes of nationalization and socialization, if we will be able to freely choose the education we want to give our children or if we are heading towards a single school system, if the right to life will be effectively protected, if the development of nationalities will prevail, or if the seriously dissolving tendencies lurking in the term will prevail. Etc.
Both within and outside of government, Aznar has shaped the course of the Spanish right for the past twenty-five years, a course that has generated culture wars, forced geostrategic stances (Venezuela, Palestine), experienced both electoral successes and failures, and currently connects seamlessly with the far-right wave that spawned neo-Francoist parties like Vox, which itself emerged from the ranks of the People's Party (PP). Are the left and Catalan and Basque nationalisms also to blame? Of course, for several reasons. But to claim that Spain has a right wing truly committed to democracy is still a debatable assertion.
