From the rifles to the polls. FET-JONS before the (non natas) municipal elections of 1946

Abstract

This paper deals with the process through which Falange got involved in the organization of the elections to the representatives of the family heads at the councils, whose celebration was initially set by the Government by March 1946. The empirical basis of the work is based on records housed in the Archivo General de la Administración and coming from two institutional bodies of FET-JONS: the Vicesecretaría General de Ordenación Social and the provincial headquarters of the Movement. The information obtained from these primary sources is inserted in the framework of the adaptation of FET-JONS and the regime itself to the new international community that emerged from the defeat of the Axis powers in 1945. In addition, this information is used to describe in detail the mechanisms articulated by the Falange to intervene in all phases of the organization of the aforementioned elections. The paper concludes that, despite the difficulties it went through since mid-1945, Falange did not remain passive faced with the 1946 electoral call. On the contrary, it reacted immediately with the aim of not being negatively affected by those elections and, at the same time, taking advantage of them to consolidate its power. The Spanish Trade Union Organization was in charge of carrying out this intervention. The way it coped with such a task showed that, by the end of 1945, the Party enjoyed a powerful institutional apparatus perfectly rooted within the regime and with great coordination between national and peripheral bodies.