FET y de las JONS (Falange)
팔랑헤 (FET y de las JONS)
The single party of the Franco regime and, legally, the only party permitted in Spain after the Civil War. It was created in April 1937 by the Decree of Unification, which forcibly merged the Falange with the Carlist Traditionalists, and Franco became its National Chief. During the dictatorship it was commonly called the National Movement (Movimiento Nacional), and the Suárez government dissolved it in 1977.
In depth
When the Civil War broke out the Falange sided with the rebels, and its membership grew from a few thousand to several tens of thousands. After its founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera was executed in Alicante prison on 20 November 1936, Manuel Hedilla led the party provisionally. On 20 April 1937 the Decree of Unification merged Falange Española de las JONS with the Carlist Traditionalists and others into one party, and the 'Generalísimo' Franco became National Chief of the new single party. Hedilla, who refused to accept the unification, was arrested and sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted.
Under the statutes published on 4 August 1937 Franco was National Chief, answerable only 'before God and before History'. Raimundo Fernández-Cuesta was initially secretary-general, but the real strongman was Ramón Serrano Suñer, Franco's brother-in-law and interior minister. Through the crisis of May 1941 and the Begoña incident of August 1942 Franco curbed the power of the Falangists. Membership peaked at 932,000 in 1942.
Quiet after 1945, the party revived from 1948, but the Spanish source regards the 1958 Law of Fundamental Principles of the Movement as the beginning of its end; thereafter it was called the 'Movement' and its Falangist ideological base faded. After Franco's death Adolfo Suárez became minister-secretary-general in 1976, and on 7 April 1977 the Suárez government decreed the official dissolution of FET y de las JONS.