The French Socialists 1959–77

Abstract

After the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), the Spanish Socialist Party went into exile in Mexico and France. In France, the presence of a strong émigré community (thousands having fled Spain after 1939) led to the formation of several ‘Socialist groups’. The I Congress of the PSOE in France which took place in Toulouse in 1944 ended a period of tension between several factions within the Spanish Socialist Party: Caballeristas (supporters of Largo Caballero) and Besteiristas (supporters of Julian Besteiros), elected Enrique de Francisco (caballerista) and Trifón Gómez (besteirista) as President and Vice-president and Rodolfo Llopis (caballerista) as General Secretary of the new Executive Committee. Two years later, in May 1946, the II Congress of the PSOE in Toulouse agreed to integrate the Mexican group of Indalecio Prieto and to form the PSOE in exile, which was the official representative of the Socialist Party in Spain¹ during the Franco regime. Until the split of the PSOE in 1972 into the PSOE (histórico) of Rodolfo Llopis and the PSOE (renovado) of Felipe Gonzalez, the PSOE in exile maintained a very close relation with the French Socialists. The leadership used the SFIO’s offices in Toulouse as its headquarters. In addition, the PSOE’s newspaper El Socialista was printed in France with the help of the French Socialists.