Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

the ICFTU. There my work focused on re-establishing unions in
Spain.
Meanwhile in Spain, the Franco dictatorship was breaking down, in
part because of the work we and other opposition groups were undertaking.
During the same period, PSOE representatives-in-exile
split. The majority decided that the entire party leadership should
move back to Spain with Felipe González as Secretary General.
The minority opposed this move, split off and gradually disappeared,
losing their international relationships.
I returned to Spain, and for a year and a half we worked tirelessly
to extend the structure of the party and of its sister union, the UGT,
while the Socialist Youth continued to grow independently. A
process of negotiation followed, involving some of the forces that
had emerged from the very structures of the dictatorship. The opposition
as a whole, including some of these forces, succeeded in
getting free elections called. Held on 15 June 1977, they were the
first free elections to have taken place since 1931. Spain’s time in
the desert had lasted 46 years. In the elections PSOE won 30% of
the votes and was able to impose a commitment to a democratic
constitution. I was one of the 116 socialist members of parliament
elected then and I was to retain my seat for 22 years. This, and the
nine years that I have spent in the European Parliament, are things
of the present. My country’s accession to the European Union, fulfilling
a long-held aspiration, under the leadership of Felipe
González’s socialist government is also a thing of the present.
During my years in Vienna, I was able to get to know many young
socialists from across Europe and the wider world. Some of those
who made the greatest impression on me were representatives of
organisations that were also operating in exile: Madli Kurdve from
Estonia and Radomir Luza from Czechoslovakia. Thanks to them I
learned that there were other dictatorships in Europe and other
peoples who were struggling and suffering under totalitarian
regimes. That was such a profound lesson, and so profound was
the solidarity that was always shown by comrades like Radomir and
Madli. I would also like to thank them, in an acknowledgement from
Prague, for their companionship and hope.
213 Miguel Angel Martinez