On 20 November 1975, Francisco Franco finally dies - now, finally, Spain can slowly turn itself into a democracy. Thus begins the period called transición, which ends for some on 6 December 1978 with the ratification of the Spanish Constitution; for others with the election victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in 1982, after an attempted Fascist coup the year before.
Informe general covers the run-up to the nation’s first post-Franco free elections, on 15 June 1977 - an event at once very real, if also somewhat theatrical, which made Portabella tackle the project as if it were a piece of fiction. He certainly wasn’t a disinterested third party: Portabella himself was up for election, and would take part in drawing up the ’78 Constitution.
