Reporter’s Notebook : Reagans at Palace Where Franco Lived

During their visit to Spain, President and Nancy Reagan are lodged just outside Madrid at the Pardo Palace, the official residence of the late Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the dictator of Spain for almost 40 years.

When a visiting reporter raised an eyebrow at this, a Spanish Foreign Ministry official was quick to say: “Oh, no, don’t read anything into that. The Pardo is now an official residence for visiting heads of state.”

Franco died in 1975. Part of the residence has been turned into a museum.

Spanish cleaning men in orange coveralls made a valiant effort to remove anti-Reagan graffiti and posters put up for a massive demonstration in downtown Madrid.

The effort to clear the walls before the President’s arrival was largely futile, but it did not seem to matter. Reagan, in his 40-hour stay, is spending most of his time in government palaces away from the city center.

Much of the anti-Reagan material has a sort of Wild West theme. Posters attacking the President depict him as an unsavory-looking cowboy, and some of the protesters call him a “gunslinger” and a “cattle rustler.”

In Barcelona, demonstrators put on war paint, dressed like Indians and chanted in Spanish, “Indians to power; Yankees to the reservation.”

Alfonso Guerra, Spain’s deputy prime minister, is regarded here as the conscience of the governing Socialist Party. He often expresses the most leftist views of his party and reflects the sentiments of those who feel that Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez takes too moderate a line and often abandons the strict ideology of socialism.

Knowing that many Socialists such as Guerra were furious at the United States for imposing a trade embargo on Nicaragua, Spanish reporters asked Guerra if he would prefer that the Reagan visit had been called off.

“I don’t have to answer that question,” Guerra replied, “since I will not be here when the President visits us.”

Guerra left Madrid for a “rest” on the island of Majorca and said he will then go elsewhere “on official business.”

There was no language problem in the conversations between the Reagans and King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia. The Spanish royal couple speak English fluently.

English was the language of their courtship and the language they spoke at home for at least the first years of their marriage.

Queen Sofia was a Greek princess and lived in exile with the Greek royal family in South Africa during World War II. She spoke little Spanish when they met. Juan Carlos speaks Spanish, English and French fluently.

Looking for some positive publicity from the 3,500 reporters who gathered in Bonn for the economic summit conference and President Reagan’s state visit over the weekend, the city of Bonn thought it would hit the press corps at its weakest point: It offered free beer to all accredited correspondents.

But city officials reported sadly Monday that the busy schedule of the Reagan visit and the conference kept reporters so busy that only 50 of them managed to find time to sample the free beer.

And buses reserved for reporters to tour the West German capital were used hardly at all. Only 11 journalists took advantage of the excursion offer.

Notebook contributors were Stanley Meisler in Madrid and Tyler Marshall in Bonn.