Series “Anatomy of a Moment” | With the gun at the lectern

Spanish public television broadcast the four-part series on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the coup this February. Photo: Arte In Spain everyone knows what the date of February 23, 1981 is all about, but in the rest of Europe the day is rather unknown. Almost six years after the death of dictator Franco, on this day some military officers tried to stage a coup and bury the young Spanish democracy. Under the leadership of Colonel Antonio Tejero, two hundreds of the Guardia Civil paramilitary police force stormed the Spanish parliament, took the MPs hostage and sent tanks onto the streets.

The coup failed. After 18 hours the spook was over, the putschists gave up and were arrested. Tejero, armed with a pistol, at the lectern in the Spanish Parliament, surrounded by police with machine guns who finally fired volleys into the ceiling of the hall - the scene became the press photo of the year 1981.

The Spanish writer Javier Cercas summarized this moment in a special way in his award-winning essay “Anatomy of a Moment,” which has now been made into a series. Spanish public television broadcast the four-part series on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the coup this February. The series, which has already won several awards in Spain, can now be seen on Arte.

While the Guardia Civil fired warning shots with submachine guns that day (the bullet holes can still be seen in the ceiling of the plenary hall), all MPs ducked away - except for three, who stood or sat stoically; one even charged at the gunmen and began wrestling with them.

Who were these three people? Heroes? On the one hand, it was the then Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez (Alvaro Morte), who was actually supposed to be voted out of office that day. Then there was Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado (Manolo Solo), chief of staff of the army, who even physically defended himself against the coup plotters. And finally the communist leader Santiago Carrillo (Eduardo Fernández), who is said to have continued smoking his cigarette with stoic calm. The central head of the anti-Franco resistance in exile in France, so hated by the Spanish right, was the person who had to fear the most for his life at that moment.

What role did these three protagonists play in this moment and in the so-called transition, Spain's transition to democracy, which is usually considered complete with the victory of the Socialists in the 1982 election?

The series covers an absolutely fascinating chapter of recent European history.

The series expands on the three biographies in flashbacks and manages to link these different strands of contemporary history into an exciting overall picture. On the one hand, there is the Prime Minister, a former refrigerator salesman who, as a young man, worked his way up in the fascist Falange and ultimately made a political career in the young democracy. The chief of staff who wrestled with the Guardia Civil officials in the plenary hall was also originally part of the Francoist repressive regime.

Both Suárez and Mellado were soon viewed as traitors within their own ranks, promising slow reforms but winding down the military's power much more quickly than expected. Spain was under enormous political pressure at the time. In 1980 there were hundreds of assassination attempts from both the right and the left. There were strikes and demonstrations, with the state continuing to act brutally against any resistance. The series also reflects this in numerous fictional and documentary film snippets.

Communist leader Carrillo, who had agreed to compromises with Suárez, was also considered a traitor in his own ranks. Among other things, the guarantee of the inviolability of the king, whom the communists naturally wanted to depose, was the bargaining chip to enforce the legalization of the communist party at the end of the 1970s.

In this area of ​​tension between a kind of heroism and the thankless role of having fallen out with one's own political context, the series tells the story of these three characters with a great narrator's voice and opens up an absolutely fascinating chapter of recent European history that is little known in this country, but is all the more explosive in view of right-wing electoral successes and the rise of fascism.

Of course, the series and the essay on which it is based also have their blind spots. The three actors at this critical point in the history of Spanish democracy experienced their political departure or retirement after “23F,” as this historical event is labeled in Spain. The series, which repeatedly shows arms raised in a fascist salute, only cautiously suggests that the government at the time only had one foot in democracy and that its actors were still closely linked to their Francoist past.

The role of the king, who is unclear as to whether he was involved in planning the coup, is also hardly discussed. The fact that communist leader Carrillo was also a Stalinist who was at least accused of complicity in numerous crimes committed against anti-authoritarian leftists and Trotskyists during the civil war is irrelevant here. This series, which is worth seeing, captures the moment of this historic moment of “23F” very concisely.

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