page_title: Tomás Domínguez Arévalo
section_title: Unification
hierarchical_section_title: Tomás Domínguez Arévalo / Unification
caption_attribution_description: Español: Detalle de una fotografía que muestra al general Franco en 1940
context_page_description: Tomás Domínguez Arévalo, 6th Count of Rodezno, 12th Marquis of San Martin was a Spanish Carlist and Francoist politician. He is known mostly as the first Francoist Minister of Justice. He is also recognised for his key role in negotiating Carlist access to the coup of July 1936 and in emergence of carlo-francoism, the branch of Carlism which actively engaged in the Francoist regime.
context_section_description: With Fal on exile and party leadership assumed by France-based Don Javier, Rodezno emerged as "maxima figura carlista en España". Starting January 1937 he and other party bigwigs were approached by the military and the Falangists about forming a monopolist state party; the pressure started to mount later on. The Carlist leaders met 3 times to address the challenge: in Insua (February), in Burgos (March) and in Pamplona (April), all attended by Rodezno. He and the faction he headed advocated compliance with political amalgamation, pressed by the military; they were confronted by the Falcondistas, opting for intransigence. As the formal party executive Junta Nacional was getting decomposed and theoretically local, Rodeznista-dominated Junta Central assumed a key role, the balance tipped towards unification. The fusion was presented as means to build a new state, Catholic, regionalist, social and ultimately formatted as Traditionalist monarchy.
  On April 22 Rodezno was nominated to Secretariado Político of the new party, Falange Española Tradicionalista, one of 4 Carlists within the 10-member body. He and other Carlists learned of the party program only once its 21 points were announced and immediately demonstrated some unease. His relations with Fal and Don Javier remained extremely tense, though falling short of total breakup; both considered him a fronding rebel. Rodezno's efforts to elicit authorization from the regent produced no effect. During the next few months he presided over absorption into Falange rather than a fusion, bombarded with queries and protests from Carlist rank-and-file about total predomination and arrogance of camisas azules. Possibly as a result of complaints about the Falangists' lack of give and take in October 1937 Franco called up theoretically governing structure of the party, the National Council; within its ranks the Carlists were even worse-off, only 11 of them among its 50 members. Despite Fal's calls to decline, Rodezno accepted the seat and in December 1937 Don Javier expulsed him from Carlism.
  Rodezno's motives are unclear; apart from partisan claims that he traded Carlist principles for a few Navarrese alcaldias, there are many conflicting interpretations offered. According to one, he feared that internal divisions within the Nationalist camp might lead to defeat in the war. According to another, he has never been a genuine Carlist and is better described as a conservative monarchist. Some scholars claim that he was a possibilist, who realized that Traditionalism was unable to seize power single-handedly and needed coalition partners; one more clue might have been that perceiving Carlism as rooted in family and regional values, he downplayed the issues of organization and structures. Others underline that he considered the emerging system largely in line with the Carlist vision and did not think it worthwhile to be marginalized for the sake of defending second-rate discrepancies. Finally, there are authors who believe that he realized neither gravity of the moment nor totalitarian nature of the new party; Rodezno – the theory goes – imagined the structure either as a new incarnation of Unión Patriotica or as a loose alliance, both permitting Carlism to maintain its proper identity.
caption: Francisco Franco
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