Neuro Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 Just wanted to share this incredible bit of random history with you all, as it was the 25th Anniversary of this last year and it's a truly eye-opening! As a bit of context, Spain had had a 40-year dictatorship from the end of the civil war in 1939, until General Franco died in 1975. There followed a La Transición - basically the country's attempt to make the transition back into democracy. Adolfo Suárez was the Prime Minister at this point but at the end of this transitional period in 1981-82 he was stepping down and so the vote was taking place to elect a new leader. And it was at this time that some die-hard Franco supporters from the military decided to try to overthrow the government; led by Colonel Tejero, they charged into the Cortes (Spanish Parliament) and took 350 politicans hostage by gunpoint. Even more amazing is that because everyone was voting on something so important, it was being broadcased live nationwide by TVE, Spain's national TV channel... obviously not everyone was watching the politics on TV at this precise moment - but for those who were, imagine the shock --> Short video broadcast here (45 secs): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpFn1t43Ads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 wow, its amazing how history forgets but cannot forgive... What happened though? The video ends too abruptly!!! TELL ME MORE!!! I NEED KNOWLEDGE!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neuro Posted March 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 There are more videos flying around the net and on youtube... It took King Juan Carlos (still King today) to come on TV the next day (also on youtube), where he outrightly condemned the coup completely and orders them to surrender which, after 19 hours, they finally do. It was a fantastic show of strength from the monarchy, which perhaps needed to happen in order to speed up the transition into democracy. Read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/s...000/2518825.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quadrant Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 Wow, I watched this in the dark last night and it frightened me! Imagine this happening in England, firing guns and stuff inside :eek: The spanish are all nuts anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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