Saturday, January 4, 2020: 10:50 AM
New York Ballroom East (Sheraton New York)
Nicolas Sesma, University of Grenoble Alpes
Last survivor of the right-wing authoritarian wave of the 1930s, Francoist dictatorship faced a difficult situation during the first decade of the post-war period, internationally isolated and officially condemned by the United Nations. Although the regime never changed its political nature, remaining a single party system until Franco’s death, the closure of the fascist path in 1945 forced its organic intellectuals to adapt their discourse and to introduce new political elements. In this sense, pseudo-democratic laws and procedures, combined with growing administrative and economic efficiency since the end of the 50s, were used to justify a dictatorship’s new definition as a “development regime” or “corporate democracy”, half way between western systems and the new nationalist regimes originated by decolonization. At the same time, despite this process of image whitewashing and in order to satisfy its domestic supporters, francoist Spain became an academic shelter for many intellectuals, such as Carl Schmitt, ostracized in their home countries because of their fascist past.
This paper will analyse the role played by one of these organic intellectuals, Luis Díez del Corral, in this double process of external whitewashing and internal reaffirmation. As former disciple of Ortega y Gasset, Díez del Corral was chosen to change the French perception of Francoism as cultural attaché of the Spanish Embassy in Paris (1948-1951). At the same time, as one of the key figures of the phalangist’s Institute of Political Studies, he made possible the honorary membership granted to Schmitt (1962), one of his most loyal correspondents. Introducing his influential 1954 book The Rape of Europe, Corral visited Latin America and Japan several times, establishing long term relationships with anti-communist figures, such as Suzuki Shigetaka. His case raises questions about far-right networks and the legacies of fascist juridical and political culture in the post-war period.
