On this day, 20 December 1973, Spanish fascist prime minister who was hand-picked as general Francisco Franco’s successor, Luis Carrero Blanco, was assassinated in Madrid. Basque separatists ETA had spent five months digging a tunnel under a road he went down to attend mass. They then detonated a bomb as he drove over, shooting his car 20 metres into the air and over a five-storey building, earning Blanco the nickname of “Spain’s first astronaut”. His successor was unable to hold together different factions of the government, and so this action was credited by some for helping accelerate the restoration of democracy after Franco’s death.
Pictured: A reconstruction of the event for the film Ogro (1979)
Learn more about the rise of fascism in Spain in our introduction to the Spanish civil war in podcast episodes 39-40. Find them on every major podcast app, or on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1611700219015122/?type=3