La tentación del Caudillo

It is 1940. Suspecting an early surrender by the allies, Franco is tempted to enter World War II on the side of the Berlin-Rome axis. Seeing what his opportunity may be, he offers his help to the Führer, who does not hesitate to spurn the offer. Months later, when the contest swings in a very different direction, Hitler begins to calibrate the benefits of an alliance with Spain, but by then it is too late. Unable to offer Franco everything he asked for, he has to assume that, at this point, the Caudillo is reluctant to get involved in the conflict. The Hendaye meeting, over which rivers of ink have already flowed, continues to fascinate us because of all the implications that a different result could have had. With his usual mastery, and closer than ever to the fictionalized story, Juan Eslava Galán makes us witnesses of an episode that could mark the history of Spain or, at the very least, take it on a very different course.