page_title: Juan Sáenz-Díez García
section_title: Early Francoism: in opposition (1937–1955)
hierarchical_section_title: Juan Sáenz-Díez García / Early Francoism: in opposition (1937–1955)
caption_attribution_description: English: informaciones
context_page_description: Juan Sáenz-Díez García was a Spanish entrepreneur and Carlist politician. In business he is known among key managers of the Simeón García family conglomerate. In politics he counted among architects of cautiously collaborative course during mid-Francoism and leader of a Traditionalist organization Comunión Tradicionalista, active during the transición period. He is also recognized as owner of an iconic Galician daily El Correo Gallego.
context_section_description: In late December 1936 Sáenz-Díez took part in a meeting of Junta Nacional in Toledo, intended to discuss Franco's demand that the party leader, Manuel Fal, leaves Spain; nothing is known about his position on the issue. In February 1937 as delegado de intendencia he travelled to the Portuguese Insua, where the exiled Fal had settled, to agree Carlist position versus the looming threat of amalgamation into a new state party. The meeting seemed to have ended with supporters of an intransigent stand gaining the upper hand, but during the next two meetings the balance tilted towards a conciliatory position and ultimately non-resistance to Unification Decree. It is not known whether initially Sáenz-Díez formed part of the pro-unification or the anti-unification faction, but afterward he tended to ally with the latter. In course of 1937 and 1938 he went on editing El Correo Gallego along vaguely Traditionalist lines. Formally a property of a freshly set up Editorial Compostela S.A., the daily was spared amalgamation into the Francoist propaganda machinery; its headquarters was moved from El Ferrol to Santiago, a Traditionalist José Goñi Aizpurúa was recruited as its chief editor and its infrastructure underwent technological upgrade, fitted with modern printing machinery.
  Upon the final 1939 Nationalist victory Sáenz-Díez was among signatories of Manifestación de los Ideales Tradicionalistas, a memorandum addressed to Franco and demanding instauration of a Traditionalist monarchy. In the early 1940s member of Junta Auxiliar, a loose and makeshift leadership group of increasingly fragmented and bewildered movement, he adopted a skeptical though not openly challenging stand towards the regime, in internal documents lambasting it as "intruso e usurpador". In 1943 he co-signed another manifesto, known as Reclamación de poder; handed to general Vigon and delivered to though not acknowledged by Franco, it re-emphasized earlier Traditionalist demands. In 1944 together with few other Carlist leaders Sáenz-Diez took part in a meeting with Juanistas, intended to discuss a would-be coup against Franco, but voiced against taking any bold action; in 1945 he was present during Carlist riots in Pamplona, later detained in his Madrid house and brought to the Navarrese capital for investigation; it is not clear what administrative measures were applied against him.
  In the late 1940s Sáenz-Díez remained member of the rather inactive Carlist leadership, in 1947 nominated to the first post-war Consejo Nacional and taking part in meager party initiatives, also abroad. When in the early 1950s Manuel Fal commenced a project of launching a semi-official national Carlist daily, due to his business position Sáenz-Díez was entrusted with bringing it to a successful end. Since 1951 he set sights on Informaciones, an ailing Madrid commercial newspaper; following some legal and financial maneuvering, in 1953 he purchased the daily. Formally his private property, it was left at disposal of Comunión Tradicionalista and pursued its editorial line. Sáenz-Díez entered Consejo de Administración and brought new staff to the newspaper, transferring his old collaborator Goñi Aizpurúa from El Correo Gallego and attracting other professionals.
caption: Informaciones (issue from 1940s)
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