Javier Cercas - The Anatomy of a Moment

Suárez is quoted in Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, Memoria viva de la transición , p. 26.

‘“Because I was still Prime Minister of His Majesty’s government. .”’See for example the audio-visual report by Victoria Prego (‘Asalto a la democracia’, in El camino de la libertad , Barcelona, Planeta/De Agostini, 2008), where he says: ‘I was the Prime Minister of the government and I did not feel like throwing myself to the floor, simply because I am the Prime Minister. And the Prime Minister should not do that. I understand those who did perfectly; probably if I hadn’t been Prime Minister I would have done the same. But I’m the Prime Minister of the government.’

‘For this reason we don’t need to pay too much attention to the politicians. .’Pablo Castellano, PSOE deputy, writes for example: ‘When Tejero burst into the chamber I had the feeling that very few of us were surprised. Those who, from one party or another, were not in the know’; Yo sí me acuerdo. Apuntes e historias , Madrid, Temas de Hoy, 1994, p. 344. Ricardo Paseyro is quoted in Juan Blanco, 23-F. Crónica fiel. . , p. 131.

See Sol Alameda’s interview with Suárez in Santos Juliá et al, eds., Memoria de la transición , p. 454. ‘Everything is tied up and well tied.’ The first Franco quote can be found in Discursos y mensajes del jefe del estado. 1968–1970 , Madrid, Publicaciones Españolas, 1971, p. 108; the second, in Discursos y mensajes del jefe del estado, 1960–1963 , Madrid, Publicaciones Españolas, 1964, p. 397. As for Jesús Fueyo’s phrase, see Pueblo , 24.11.1966, quoted by Juan Pablo Fusi, España, de la dictadura a la democracia , Barcelona, Planeta, 1979, p. 236. Franco’s will can be read in Stanley G. Payne, The Franco Regime 1939–1975 , Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, p. 620.

The first time Tarradellas speaks of the necessity for a touch on the rudder is 14 June 1979; see Juan Blanco, 23-F. Crónica fiel. . , p. 49; the quote comes from El Alcázar , 4.7.1980; but on the first Sunday in May of that year the former Catalan premier had already declared to El País : ‘If there is not a firm and swift touch on the rudder, a scalpel will have to be used.’ Quoted by Santiago Segura and Julio Merino, Las vísperas del 23-F , Barcelona, Plaza y Janés, 1984, p. 286. Footnote.I took the first two statistics from Mariano Torcal Loriente, ‘El origen y la evolución del apoyo a la democracia en España’, Revista española de ciencias políticas , no. 18, April, 2008, p. 50, and the third from Joaquín Prieto, El País , 28.10.2007.

Joaquín Aguirre Bellver, ‘Al galope’, El Alcázar , 2.12.1980, reprinted in El ejército calla , Madrid, Ediciones Santafé, 1981, pp. 129–130. On the various political operations mentioned, see for example Xavier Domingo, ‘Areilza aspira a la Moncloa’, Cambio 16 , no. 456, 31.8.1980, pp. 19–21; Miguel Ángel Aguilar, ‘Sectores financieros, militares y eclesiásticos proponen un “Gobierno de gestión” con Osorio’, El País , 27.11.1980; José Oneto, ‘La otra Operación’, Cambio 16 , no. 470, 1.12.1980, p. 21.

Pilar Urbano, ABC , 3.12.1980.

Fernando Latorre, under the pseudonym Merlín, in his usual section ‘Las Brujas’, Heraldo Español , 7.8.1980. Fernando de Santiago, ‘Situación límite’, El Alcázar , 8.2.1981. Antonio Izquierdo, under the pseudonym Telémetro, ‘La guerra de las galaxias’, El Alcázar , 24.1.1981. The three artícles by Almendros, all published in El Alcázar , were: ‘Análisis político del momento militar’, 17.12.1980; ‘La hora de las otras instituciones’, 22.1.1981; and ‘La decisión del mando supremo’, 1.2.1981. FootnoteSee Manuel Fraga, En busca del tiempo servido , p. 232. Information on the police informant’s report can be found in Prieto and Barbería, El enigma del Elefante , p. 233. The article from Spic is reproduced by Pilar Urbano, in Con la venia. . , p. 363.

Emilio Romero, ‘Las tertulias de Madrid’, ABC , 31.1.81.

Francisco Medina, 23-F, la verdad , Barcelona, Plaza y Janés, 2006, pp. 89–117. Armada, Al servicio de la Corona , p. 92. The suspicions of connivence between Anson and Armada actually began to circulate immediately after the coup; see José Luis Gutiérrez, ‘Armada & Ansón’, Diario 16 , 2.3.1981. As for Armada’s government, see footnoteto p. 286. On the relationship between Suárez and Anson, see Gregorio Morán, Adolfo Suárez , pp. 40–42, 189, 297–298 and 305–306, and Luis María Anson, Don Juan , Barcelona, Plaza y Janés, 1994, p. 403.

‘. . his diaries of the time abound in notes about dinners. .’See Manuel Fraga, En busca del tiempo servido , pp. 225–226 (22 November: ‘I’ve received reliable information that General Armada would be prepared to lead a government of national unity’) or 231 (3 February: ‘Political lunch during which the importance of Armada’s promotion [to Deputy Chief of the Army General Staff] was emphasized; several pushing him as “the solution”’). Juan de Arespacochaga, Carta a unos capitanes , Madrid, CYAN, 1994, pp. 274–275. Fraga is quoted in Juan Blanco, 23-F. Crónica fiel. . , p. 135.

‘. . it’s very likely that the nuncio and some bishops were informed. .’Juan de Arespacochaga claims that they were in Carta a unos capitanes , p. 274. See also, for example, Cernuda, Jáuregui and Menéndez, 23-F. La conjura de los necios , p. 191; or Palacios, El golpe del CESID , p. 385.

Armada’s version of his interview with Múgica is in Al servicio de la Corona , p. 224; Múgica’s version is in El Socialista , 11–17 March 1981, and in El País , 13.3.1981. Armada states that he notified his Captain General, who in turn informed the Zarzuela, and the Palace told Suárez: see Prieto and Barbería, El enigma del Elefante , p. 92. Some time later Múgica told Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo that at the meeting in Lérida Armada explained his idea of a government of unity and that, when the general wondered who might lead it, Raventós interrupted: ‘Who’s going to lead it? You are.’ Calvo Sotelo interviewed by Rosa Montero, in Santos Juliá et al, eds., Memoria de la transición , p. 522. As for the Socialists’ contacts with the leaders of the minority parties — specifically the PNV and Convergència i Unió — see Prieto and Barbería, El enigma del Elefante , pp. 93–96, or Antxon Sarasqueta, De Franco a Felipe , Barcelona, Plaza y Janés, 1984, p. 137. The interview between Jordi Pujol and a member of PSOE is reported by Andreu Farràs and Pere Cullell in El 23-F a Catalunya , Barcelona, Planeta, 1998, pp. 53–54. On the rumours of another no-confidence motion by the PSOE and its plans to enter an interim government, see section 10of this same chapter and ‘. . because at that time the leaders of the PSOE often discussed the role the Army. .’One example: on 9 January Múgica gave a speech at the Club Siglo XXI in the presence of leading right and centrist politicians involved in different operations against the Prime Minister — Alfonso Osorio and Miguel Herrero de Miñón among others; according to Miguel Ángel Aguilar’s write-up for El País , the Socialist leader ‘described the conditions that would have to exist for legitimately constituted power to find itself obliged to call on its armies to maintain individual rights and the security of the state’; he also ‘made a constitutional excursion to article 116, which deals with the proclamation of the state of siege and the guarantees that should apply’.