Posted on 07/04/2006 9:21:04 AM PDT by Lukasz
EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - A Polish MEP has sparked a sharp exchange of views in the European Parliament with his comment that Europe needs more politicians like Spanish dictator General Franco, as deputies debated the lessons learnt 70 years after his coup in Spain.
Maciej Marian Giertych, a Polish non-attached MEP from the League of Polish Families, a ruling coalition party in Poland, broke rank from his European counterparts who condemned General Franco and his dictatorship during a plenary debate on Tuesday (4 July).
In his speech on the subject, Mr Giertych praised the Spanish right-wing powers and in particular general Francisco Franco for stopping the spread of communism to western Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
"The presence of such personalities as Franco, Salazar or DeValera in European politics guaranteed Europe's preservance of traditional values. We lack such men of action these days," said the Polish deputy.
"We observe deep sorrow some attempts for a historical revisionism which tends to criticise all that is traditional and catholic while portray in a positive light all that is lay and socialist."
"Let's not forget that Nazism in Germany and fascism in Italy were also spiced up by socialist and atheist taste," Mr Giertych added.
His speech was followed by a furious outcry from the German socialist leader Martin Schultz.
"What we have just heard is Mr Franco's ghost. It was a fascist speech and such a statement has no place in the European Parliament," said Mr Schultz, while shouting "You are Nazi" to some protesting Polish deputies.
The centre-right leader Hans Gert Poettering also denounced such statements, saying that while he himself is a catholic, he condemns any dictatorship even if it was trying to create conditions to support catholic ideals.
Over the past few months, socialist and liberal MEPs have several times criticised Polish government members, particularly for their views and policies on gays and lesbians.
Talking to journalists after the debate, Mr Schultz said "we can still see people like that spread around Europe" and argued "We need to create strong international pressure to fight against such tendencies as we are definitely not going to tolerate them."
And....he's still dead.
"Let's not forget that Nazism in Germany and fascism in Italy were also spiced up by socialist and atheist taste," Mr Giertych added.
The Franco remarks can be debated, but on this he is right.
Well, Solzhenitsyn once said that Spain ought to be grateful and counting itself happy for having had Franco. He on his own skin experienced the alternative, and found it to be much worse. Maciej Marian Giertych is absolutely right.
Franco came to power during the civil war in Spain in 1936; he restored order to a chaotic situation. The Republican side, which was the government side led by the socialists, lost to Franco due to his superior military tactics and their own squabbling and gross incompetence. The Socialist cause became a rallying cry for the Left and a cause clebre. Many intellectuals fought in Spain including such famous ones as Eric Blair (George Orwell) and Ernest Hemingway. The communist fought in Spain as well and Stalin's forces fought a civil war within the civil war to eliminate the Trotskytes. The Civil War was a horribly bloody affair, where the Nazis tried out their aerial warfare on on the town of Guernica, which Pablo Picasso depicted in a famous painting. Despite Nazi assistance, once in power Franco snubbed Hitler in WW II and steered Spain in a neutral position. Franco was a traditional autocrat who place order ahead of liberty, was anticommunist, and traditional. He appealed to traditionalist within Spain. But he had little in common with today's American conservative; he probably saved Spain from the horror Cuba has experienced under Casto's communist dictatorship, which is the direction many feared Spain was headed under the Republic.
I would say, that not honoring Franco but this statement made socialist leader so angry.
Guernica by Picasso is a good visual of the horrors inflicted on an innocent town by Franco and the Nazis just to see what effect bombing had on civilians. Picasso's mural was created in black and white to give it a newspaper printing effect and remove the "glamour" of color from the subject. Very disturbing painting, more so than his usual work.
Amen
Thank for compressed story, make sense.
Well, many others could have said the same. Ideally one needs to find a person with a direct experience of both frankist Spain and stalinist USSR, both on receiving end. Given the numbers of people involved, the existence of such a person is more than likely.
I'm very glad Franco effectively blocked Hitler from attacking Gibraltar. It would have very tough fighting the war in the desert without that rock.
As for the Spanish Civil War itself - Orwell served on the communist side, and the experience led to his disillusionment with the communist Brave New World.
Direct experience of the Left in action opens closed eyes. Solzhenitsyn, Koestler, the entire Polish nation, and many others. My own.
Franco may not be dead after all. He may now be planning a political comeback.
In spanish it's Valle de los Caidos. Francisco Franco is buried inside, along with all the luminaries of the phalangist movemiento. It was built by the leftist/socialist/communist prisoners captured during and after the Spanish Civil War. If the left had succeeded, it would have been dedicated to the Spanish "stalin and no doubt constructed by bourgeoise, military, clerical, and royalist forces.
Well, while the Germans were persecuting and killing the Jews, Franco was protecting them from the Germans.
There is a Polish Jewish family who escaped Warsaw when the war broke out and made their way to Spain. They chose to stay there until Communism ended, and returned to reopen their restaurant on the Old Town Square once freedome returned. They had the choice of Franco or Stalinism, and chose Franco.
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