Was There a Resistance Fascism? Narratives about Falange’s Place in the Franco Regime

Abstract

Is it possible to identify traces of dissent or even resistance to Francoism within a single fascist party? Can there be elements of radical opposition within fascism in its long duration? This article’s discussion of this question, centered on the Spanish Falange’s case, will focus on two main topics that define the parameters of historiographical discussion of an idealized (‘authentic’, ‘pure’, ‘uncontaminated’, ‘rebellious’) fascism that may also be useful for interpreting and establishing comparisons with other contexts. The first of these topics is the mythification of fascism’s original authenticity and the second is the preeminence of Franco’s providentialist leadership and how it explicitly demonstrates his de facto importance in the construction of the dictatorial regime as a fascist regime through the exercise of power.