The regime at the end of the regime. Social change and late francoism from Delegación Nacional de Provincias (National province delegation)

Abstract

This paper is based on documents held in the personal archives of Fernando Azancot, who was National Secretary of Provinces from 14th February 1974 to 27th September 1976. Formerly, he had been the Provincial Youth Delegate in Zamora (1967- 1969), the Provincial Vice-chief of the Movimiento in the same province (1972-1974) and a staff member of the National Youth Department (1972-1974). His political career was always carried out inside the single party (FET-JONS) under Franco’s dictatorship and his personal archive is thus relevant to an understanding of the relationship between FET-JONS and the State in the last few months of the regime. Azancot’s archive contains a series of files with comments about the main political figures in each province at the time. The aim of this work is to clarify whether the provincial representatives of the regime truly saw themselves as members of the single party or, to the contrary, considered the Movimiento a mere platform from which to access power and institutional positions.