Torrevieja Forum and Discussion Board

Don't forget that he refused to be drawn into WW2. He owed Hitler favours so he would have been under lot of pressure to do so and despite that, he kept Spain out of the war.

"The democratic reinvention of the Franco regime meant that the losing side of the Civil War—the Republicans, a mostly leftist coalition of liberals, communists, socialists, and anarchists that resisted Franco’s assault on the popularly elected Second Republic—never got the chance to make Franco pay for his political sins. In what historians have referred to as the “Spanish Holocaust,” as many as 200,000 political dissidents were executed by Franco’s militias; an additional 400,000 were imprisoned in jails and concentration camps established by Franco after the end of the Civil War, where many died of malnutrition and starvation. An unknown number of prisoners were forced into virtual slavery to aid in the postwar reconstruction effort, including building El Valle. Some 500,000 people fled Spain as political refugees."

At least General Noriega was blunt about it with his famous "favours for my friends and bullets for my enemies" Franco's wife Carmen Polo was a very formidable lady and had hoped their daughter would become queen. The children and grandchildren grace all the socialite pages.

Bee

chrisz wrote: 01 Sep 2020 22:26 Don't forget that he refused to be drawn into WW2. He owed Hitler favours so he would have been under lot of pressure to do so and despite that, he kept Spain out of the war.

Not quite that simple chrisz.

Britain paid millions of pounds to military and political leaders in Spain to ensure they remained neutral during the Second World War, secret files reveal.

Which was eventually pocketed by the generals.

Didn't Franco also start tourism? Using the countries natural resources?

Whatever ' good' things he did, they will be always outweighed by the evil things he did.

Him and his generals may have been bribed to keep Spain out of WW2 but it Hitler brought the war, at Francos request, to the villagers of Guernica on 26 April 1937.

1600 innocent people were either killed or injured by Hitlers ' Condor Legion ' in what was a testing ground for blanket bombing of civiians.

Karen Jones wrote: 02 Sep 2020 08:02 Didn't Franco also start tourism? Using the countries natural resources?

No.

Tourists to Spain were happening long before Franco.

It expanded into package tourism in the 50s and 60s at the same time it did to other Mediterranean countries.

And who was in power during the 1950's / 1960's ?
Franco , of course .
Nothing would have happened in Spain, without his approval .

The mayor of Benidorm went personally to Madrid to see Franco , to tell him of his dream of turning , what was a fishing village , into a resort.
He received full backing , and encouragement from Franco .
It's not often that you're right ...but you're wrong again.

You said " Tourism , long before Franco" ?
I don't think there was much tourism , when he came to power in 1938.

Jimbo wrote: 01 Sep 2020 22:05
Or are you trying to start all over again on this new forum.
You dont need to, there are two others you can keep trivialising on without bringing it on here or us it because selhurst and others on those forums will not rise to your baiting you are now starting it on here.

...............
.


There is only one ( actually two) agitator on this forum.
And it's not me .
You have a history of causing trouble , and have been banned multiple times from local forums .
For your information, Selly and I are having exchanges ( not just on word games ) .
You said last week , that you were going to take the advice of another agitator , and not respond to my posts .
That didn't last long - did it ?
Of course - I knew it wouldn't .
Now you start a post about "locked threads" , just to keep the fire burning .
I'm sure Carl has you sussed out .

Tourism started in Spain as early as 1925, and the true story of Pedro Zaragoza, the Mayor of Benidorms visit to Franco is this....

When Zaragoza - took over as mayor of Benidorm in 1950 a former phosphate miner and railway porter.

This transformation of Benidorm was largely the work of Zaragoza, who remained mayor for 17 years. Not that he initially envisaged development on such a scale: in the early days he visualised a small town with agreeable plazas and boulevards, lush gardens and comfortable hotels.

Having arranged for water to be pumped to Benidorm from 10 miles away to service the village, Zaragoza set about encouraging package tour operators who could fly planeloads of tourists to Spain. Initially he contacted airlines in Germany and Scandinavia, and came up with the less than snappy slogan "sun and beach" to attract visitors from northern Europe and the British started to flock to Spain.

With the British came the bikini, leading to the most celebrated episode in Zaragoza's career as mayor. He had seen the two-piece swimming costumes in magazines, and knew that - in northern Europe - they were considered unremarkable. In Spain, however, they were banned by General Franco's regime.

In 1953 - on the principle that "you couldn't stop it" - Zaragoza authorised the wearing of bikinis at Benidorm. No one in the country had attempted this, and there was uproar. As members of the Civil Guard scuffled with scantily-clad girls on Benidorm's beaches, the local archbishop threatened to excommunicate Zaragoza, who decided to appeal directly to Franco.

At 6am one morning he set off for Madrid on his Vespa motor scooter, arriving in the Spanish capital eight hours later. "I changed my shirt but I went in to the General with my trousers spattered with motor oil," he later claimed. "He backed me, and the bikini stayed."