Stefano Franco (Spain)

"Men who take up arms against the State must expect at any moment to be fired upon. Men who take up arms unlawfully cannot expect that the troops will wait until they are quite ready to begin the conflict."
- Stefano Franco, 22 March 2061

Stefano Franco is currently recognized as the head of state of the Republic of Spain, first rising to power in a coup de'tat of the Spanish monarchy through the "Free Spain Movement. After consolidating power for himself, he adopted the titles of "Caudillo de España" and, unofficially, "Padre de la Nueva República Romana". He is often considered to be overly authoritarian, anti-democratic, and fascist; on the other hand, Franco considers himself and advocate of the 'free' market, globalization, and a 'benevolent' leader.

Life

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Stefano Franco was born 24 August 1999 in Marbella Spain. He was the only child of Juan Miguel Franco (1975-2017) and Lía Cortés (1983-2004). Growing up his family lived in poverty with his parents were constantly fighting with each other when he was a toddler. Many of the altercations his parents went through were usually intensely violent episodes that lasted hours. That was until 27 March 2004 when his father was arrested after fatally shooting and killing his mother, which followed with a 20 year long prison sentence. However, his father would not serve his full sentence as he would later die nearly 3 years before his release.

Due to his father's actions, Franco would grow up in foster care where he himself regarded the living situation as a "living hell" and by his 18th birthday he left. During his first year out of foster care he wound up living under a bridge with nothing but the clothes on his back and $10 dollars.

However, on 25 January 2019, Franco discovered the Party of Social Nationalism & Liberty (PNSL) (neo-fascist spanish political party), who gave him and others in the community support. In return, Franco became an enthusiastic supporter of the party and became the charismatic leader of the "Free Spain Movement" which called for the violent and popular removal of the Spanish monarchy.

Franco's movement would prove successful as he managed to increase his support to establish a "conservative revolution" to overthrow the monarchy on 27 July 2027. However, after a few years past from the 2027 Revolution of Spain, Franco purged members of the PSNL and formally banned it, replacing it with the Popular Social Liberal Party which supported centralization, privatization, (Stefano) Francoist Thought, militarization, and interventionism.

Leadership

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Policies

• Political Repression
  The first decade of Franco's rule following the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy in 2027; Spain saw multiple accounts of the repression of many political and civil rights and a steep rise in governmental oppression of organized religious organizations, political groups, and separatist activists. Estimation of the number of killed political opponents is unclear, difficult to know, and controversial, but most sources suggest somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000 people since 2033.

  However, by the start of the 2050s, the Francoist state has grown less violent and began to open up economically, often supporting globalization efforts and promoting "Spanish entrepreneurship". Though many opposition forces to globalization are generally silenced and arrested, and since 2053 the government has arrested over 750 opposition leaders and activists.

• Roles of Men & Women in Spanish Society
  Franco's view of the family is generally depicted in state media as a "conservative family based on the equality of the sexes" and it is referred to as the "Spanish Family". The role of the woman in society is traditional in that being a loving daughter and sister to her parents and brothers, being a faithful wife to her husband, and residing with her family above all; the role of the man is precisely inverted to the role of the woman.

• Italy and the Vatican
  Italy and the Vatican first came under the control of the Spanish in 2041, during Spain's conquest of western Europe from 2037 to 2043, after a two year war between the Spain and Italy in 2039 during the events of the third world war, which was primarily between the United States, Canada, Soviet Union, and China.

  By 2046, Italy had become known as the Italian Autonomous Region of Spain or the Italian Social Republic. The Vatican, on the other hand, retained most of it's independent status, though between 2044 and 2049 Spanish government instigated a large crackdown of the Catholic Church; they purged, imprisoned, and executed much of the former leadership that was connected to either sexual or financial crimes. Pope Benjamin in 2046 was tried, executed and replaced by the Vatican's first female pope, Esmeralda, in 2050 after Spain loosened it's grip on the little country.

• Franco Doctrine
  The guiding ideology of the Spanish Republic which, at its core, promotes the restoration of the Roman Republic along with the cult of personality of Stefano Franco. It also advocates for globalization and "neofascism", which is a system defined for its adoption of fascist ideology and combines it with 21st century experiences while putting economic output over culture - often times seeking to "destroy" the cultures of non-European nations.
  

For & Against

• For: Neofascism, Privatization, Internationalism, Patriotism, Centralization, Autocracy, Economic Liberalism, Conservatism, Third Position, Neoconservatism, Interventionism, Traditionalism

• Against: Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Nazism, Westernization, Easternization, Terrorism, Social Liberalism, Progressivism

Quotes

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“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
- 23 February 2024

“To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.”
- 15 May 2052

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
- 9 August 2027

"People use democracy as a free-floating abstraction disconnected from reality. Democracy in and of itself is not necessarily good. Gang rape, after all, is democracy in action."
- 28 August 2047

"Cultured people are merely the glittering scum which floats upon the deep river of production."
- 12 December 2057

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."
- 1 January 2030

"The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes, there has never been peace in the world; and before history began, murderous strife was universal and unending. However, that does not mean peace is impossible, it just means we haven't achieved it yet."
- 20 November 2061

"The proper response toward what we occasionally imagine to be democracy, methinks, is to retain one’s self-respect by not participating in it."
- 19 February 2057

"Democracy has nothing to do with the right choices. It has to do with the popular choices."
- 12 September 2059

"Even if smog were a risk to human life, we must remember that life in nature, without technology, is wholesale death."
- 10 March 2057

"Those who wash regularly should not stoop to democracy."
- 10 December 2056