The Start of the Post-Franco Era

Premier Carlos Arias Navarro struggled to hold back tears as he faced a hastily set-up TV camera in his Madrid office and made the proclamation Spain had expected for more than a month. "Franco is dead," said Arias, his voice breaking. "The exceptional man who before God and history assumed immense responsibility and sacrifice to Spain has surrendered his life, burning day by day, hour by hour, in completing his transcendental mission."

Heavily sedated, Europe's last Fascist dictator died at 4:40 Thursday morning. He was only two weeks short of 83, and had ruled Spain for 36 years. The cause of death, according to the final hospital bulletin, was "irreversible cardiac arrest." It was something of a medical miracle that the frail Caudillo had survived so long as that. In the 34 days since Franco first collapsed with chest pains, he had undergone three operations that attempted to stem massive internal hemorrhaging and had suffered variously from Parkinson's disease, phlebitis, pulmonary edema and kidney failure. Even in conservative Catholic Spain, some questioned whether the 32 attending doctors might have striven too earnestly to keep the failing dictator alive. His nephew Nicolas Franco answered: "I think it was constructive. It gave Spain time to adjust to the idea that we would be without him."

After Arias' proclamation, Spain officially entered a 30-day period of national mourning. In Madrid, the morning newspapers were on the streets with headlines long since set: FRANCO HA MUERTO. Radio stations dropped regular programming to play hour after hour of solemn requiem music. Later that day, Franco's body, dressed in a captain-general's uniform with a red sash, was borne from La Paz Hospital to El Pardo, his official residence outside Madrid, for a private funeral Mass. Spain's new ruler, Juan Carlos de BorbOn y BorbOn, was on hand accompanied by his attractive wife Sofia. Juan Carlos had assumed temporary powers for the second time as chief of state during Franco's final illness, but for two days after his death control of the government reverted to a three-man Council of Regency, headed by Cortes President Alejandro Rodrigues de Valcarcel.

No Crowning. At the Mass, besides the Franco family, were Cabinet Ministers, the 17-member Council of the Realm and a few old cronies from Civil War days. One of them was former Labor Minister Jose Antonio GirOn de Velasco, 64, defiantly dressed not in mourning clothes but in the uniform of Franco's Falange movement: blue shirt and black tie. A leading spokesman for the "bunker" of hard-liners who oppose political liberalization, Giron a few days earlier had warned: "We say no, a rigorous and sharp no, to any change in the system." The celebrant at the requiem Mass was the Archbishop of Madrid, Vicente Cardinal Enrique y TarancOn. A moderate reformer who has clashed with the regime, the cardinal in his restrained, stately eulogy noted that no man is free of mistakes. In effect, he proposed that Spain must accept the Franco legacy -but must also improve upon it.

Whether that happens depends largely on the blond, handsome storybook princeling who at week's end became Spain's first King since his grandfather, Alfonso XIII, was deposed in 1931. The ceremony was brief but emotional; the traditional crown and scepter were present on a table in Madrid's packed Cortes, but Juan Carlos was not formally crowned. Dressed in the uniform of a captain-general of the Spanish army -a title held only by Franco and six other men in the country's history -Juan Carlos placed his hand on a Bible and promised "to comply with the laws of the realm and remain faithful to the principles that guide the National Movement" (the country's sole legal political party). There was speculation that as one of his first official acts, King Juan Carlos may posthumously ennoble his predecessor. It would be an ironic touch of regal glory for the Galician paymaster's son, who had held more power in his lifetime than the new King might ever know.

On Sunday the King presided over an official public state funeral, which was attended by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, Jordan's King Hussein, and Monaco's Prince Rainier. Like the rest of the week's solemn pageantry, the details had been planned well in advance -many of them by Franco himself. After the funeral Mass in Madrid's packed Plaza de Oriente, his coffin was escorted from the palace by the red-bereted Guardia del Generalisimo, marching on each side of the casket, to the Arch of Victory a mile away. There the body was transferred from a horse-drawn gun carriage to a hearse for the 29-mile drive north along the Coruna highway to the Valley of the Fallen, the grim memorial to dead soldiers of the Civil War that was largely built by the labor of political prisoners. As the body was lowered into the grave, artillery batteries in Madrid thundered out a final 21-gun salute.

Even as he lay dying, Franco made one final effort to maintain a hold on Spain's future. After announcing the dictator's demise, Arias fished a large white envelope from his jacket pocket and read what he called "Franco's last thoughts on his final day of work." The message had been written on Oct. 20 and typed up that night by his daughter Carmencita. In it, the Caudillo declared that the hour had come for him to appear before God's "unquestioned judgment." He forgave his foes, adding haughtily, "I do not want to have any other enemies than those who are enemies of Spain." He asked that the Spanish people give "the same affection and loyalty" to Juan Carlos as they had extended to him. In a sentence clearly addressed to the new King, he warned that "the enemies of Spain and Christian civilization are alerted."

Liberal Token. One immediate token of the new King's liberalism would be whether or not he freed some of the 800 to 2,000 political prisoners thought to be held in Spanish jails. In the view of Spanish legal experts, he could do this by means of an amnesty rather than by using pardons. "There is a very important distinction," one of the government officials told TIME Madrid Bureau Chief Gavin Scott. "An amnesty says you didn't do it. A pardon says you did but you are forgiven."

The real clue to the King's feelings about the political freedoms most Spaniards want will be his choice of a Premier. Arias is expected to remain in the post for perhaps six months, but only in order to help the new King and the country make a smooth and peaceful transition. Meanwhile, he and Juan Carlos were expected to rearrange membership on the Council of the Realm. Its principal task is to propose a slate of three candidates from among whom Juan Carlos will ultimately choose his own Premier. By replacing aging and unreconstructed rightists on the council, Juan Carlos could in effect select his own candidate ahead of time. Among the leading possibilities are Manuel Fraga Iribarne, 53, a center rightist and former Minister of Tourism; and Jose Maria de Areilza, Count of Mortrico, 65, a monarchist and former ambassador to Washington.

If by "enemies of Spain" Franco had meant the Communists and other political parties, they were strangely quiet last week. Some were fearful of a police roundup of known dissidents or impromptu raids by right-wing hoodlums (including, possibly, off-duty cops). Others, though, were clearly waiting to see which way the King would move.

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