The evening of the 23rd February 1981 the Spanish Parliament was voting on second round the Adolfo Suárez successor appointment to the Presidency of the Government.
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Suárez had resigned a few days before, and announced such decission with a really serious expression on the television. Suárez had cracked down under the pressure of the economic crisis, the demands from the PSOE, the urge from the always selfish nationalistic parties, the pressure from his own party that was self collapsing, the demands and fears from some of the military establishment, and the continuous ETA terrorists murders that had the Armed Forces about to explode in wrath.
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Felipe González was really in a hurry to access to power because he also knew from various sources (CIA probably included) that something could happen in those days of the eary 80´s. Besides he did not precisely threw flowers at Mr. Suárez (while Suárez was tackling the terrorist problem the PSOE opposition was being ruthless) and he had his share in the collapse of Adolfo Suárez´s government as we have explained before.
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He knew that with the Suárez party (UCD) dissolving and the increasing social unrest he was going to win the next elections (as he did in 1982) easily.
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For some elements a marxist in Moncloa was something unbearable and for some others the PSOE was a better alternative than the feared Communist Party (PCE) thus they thought that winning over Mr. González for the cause of a government of national unity with ministers from different ideologies could be somehow a good thing to do.
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The idea was not really bad at all in the sense that it would have been a good way for the new PSOE to win experience and for those reluctant to see a marxist as President it would have been a way to prove them that González could change.
(And, oh boy did he chain!! Between 1982 to 1986 he held three different positions with respect of the adhesion of Spain to the NATO: First he was completely against, then he was not too convinced and finally he ended begging all Spaniards to vote yes in the referendum to that effect)
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In February 1981 a group of over a dozen Guardias Civiles broke into the Parliament carrying weapons and told the congressmen that they were there to hold everyone inside until the "competent authority" would show up. Meanwhile that very same night of february 23rd 1981, in Valencia, general Milans del Bosch took his tanks for a walk (stopping in each and every traffic light by the way) down the streets of Valencia. One of the biggest masquerades in Spain´s History was on stage.
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The first minutes of the assault were broadcasted life so everyone in Spain could witness what was going on in the congress. After some few hours of confusion King Juan Carlos in his Capitan General uniform addressed a speech to the citizenship condemning the coup d´etat attempt and defending the constitutional legitimacy.
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It was very celebrated the courage of the King as well as the fact always highlight by the brown nosers courtiers that the King was wearing his pajamas under the uniform...a funny touch of drama to stress that the King was by no means expecting such thing to happen.
At 5 am in the morning of the 24th Milans del Bosch withdrew his tank parade and by noon February 24th the coup was completely deactivated.
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Let me add it was completely deactivated from the very beginning and it was nothing but a performance orchestrated..., ok ok lets say maybe orchestrated, by the secret service, the King and the socialist party.
Let´s go back some days before the 23rd of February 1981.
Suárez made his resignation public on the 29th of January. On the 3rd of february the minister of Defense, Mr. Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún appointed General Alfonso Armada as number two in the military rank. This appointment was made not only against all Suárez recommendations but without his knowledge. Mr. Sahagún signed the appointment after being pressured by King Juan Carlos.
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Alfonso Armada ended up in jail on the charges of being one of the leaders of the coup d´etat that took place some weeks after being appointed by a minister whose boss had resigned.
Luis Herrero a well known Spanish Journalist that has also been EU MP tells in his book "Los que le llamábamos Adolfo" (Those of us who called him Adolfo):
that on February 3, 1981, Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún, then Minister of Defense, "signed the ministerial order appointing Alfonso Armada as deputy commander in chief of the Army." "It was the appointment Adolfo had tried to avoid at all costs and whose veto had cost him several formidable fights with the King in the past" he says.
He adds that with Suarez and ministers resigned the monarch had bridged the President and had demanded the defense minister to sign the appointment. The appointment prompted an angry response from Suárez and he called the minister and told him "you have just signed the authorization that will allow a coupe in Spain and when you see Armada leading the whole thing you will know it was all your fault"
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According to this the King wanted at any cost that his close friend general Alfonso Armada would be appoited deputy commander in chief and he took advantage of Suárez´s situation to force the defense minister to do something. Sounds so "Borbón" to me, it reminds me of Alfonso XIII playing war games back in the 1920s before General Primo de Rivera lead his "soft" coup d´etat.Because let us be logical and apply the common sense. If a coup is going to take place and you think that the Head of State is not going to support it or back you up, then the first thing you do is to capture the King himself (sounds like chess but its basic common sense) and not allow him to put on his uniform under his pajama in such a hurry...
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But the majority of the Spanish people took the bate and believed that the night of the 23rd the King saved the democracy from his comfortable living room in the Zarzuela Palace.
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Whoever pretends me to buy that the leaders of the coup were all complete idiots that did not think of the possibility that maybe if they did not take the royal premises and the King himself His Majesty would have something to say, will make me laugh.
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Alfonso Armada had been number two in the "Casa Real" as Secretary General of the Royal House he was also a support teacher for Juan Carlos in the different military academies that he attended in his younger years, and on top of that the King took advantage of a politically weak Suárez to appoint Armada to a key position in the military shortly before the big masquerade began.
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Who on earth has the guts to come and tell that the King knew nothing about the whole thing and that he was completely off his guard the very day the new President of Government was to be elected??
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Let us venture a hypothesis, only a hypothesis:
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In fear of a real and more hardliner coup d´etat the secret services needed some one loyal to the king like Alfonso Armada in a high position in the military in order to guarantee the success of the masquerade.
If other elements in the military saw that a close friend of the king was appointed contrary to the President Suárez opinion (Suárez came from the Franco Regime and was perceived as a traitor among some elements) they would be more likely to join this remote controlled coup d´etat thus they would come under arrest and be neutralized. Most of the took the bait
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Probably king Juan Carlos told Armada that the idea was to perform a "soft" coup that would bring a government of national unity that would include ministers from all the different ideologies. A government presided by Armada with Felipe González (PSOE) as vicepresident.
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Armada would have been said that this coup was the best for Spain and after being appointed deputy chief of command with the king´s assistance he would have no doubt that it was something that would really come to term.
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The elements deployed in the congress were waiting for some authority (Armada) and that authority was probably waiting for the king to announce that a salvation unitarian government was on its way. So there was no reason to keep neutralize the king since the elements in the coup were simply waiting for him to "bless" the whole enchilada...
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Alfonso Armada, Milans del Bosch, Antonio Tejero and the rest of the military that were prosecuted for this coup attempt were shocked the night of the 23rd when they found out that the king instead of backing them up, as they expected after Armada was designated deputy commander in chief with the king´s help, was comdemning their acts on the television.
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As I said its only an hypothesis but it does really make more, much more, sense than that of a coup d´etat that would simply had forgotten to take care of the king...
What it is sure is that the hypothesis of a masquerade is the most borbonic of the two, but no one knows.
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King Juan Carlos is not a very intelligent person, his wife Queen Sofia is in my believe far more intelligent than him but Juan Carlos has an instinctive intelligence to cling to power, it is almost like a genetic intelligence coming from the evolution of the Borbon dinasty. The king is not an avid reader or a person fond of fine arts, he enjoys fast cars and sailing and he does not want his family to end up like his grandfather´s family back in 1931 and if that ever occurs he has made sure that he will be really well off in a golden exile unlike "grandpa" did.
end of part 4
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