User blog comment:Arsonist Firefly54/What my definition of Fascism is./@comment-28047863-20180905164321/@comment-34650195-20180906085226

Franco was a head of an alliance of several large groups, one of which was Falangism that was the Spanish version of Fascism born in Italy. Franco sided with all of them but never completely. To create unity among these groups and the nation he made everyone adopt particular traits of all groups, like uniforms, symbols, party name and Roman salute of Falangists and Carlist hats. During WWII Franco favored more Falangist forces in the party to please the Axis but after that he started favoring more simply conservative Catholic factions. The ideology changed but the symbolism remained, so even while not being "fascist" anymore they used Roman salutes and Falangist flags.