Radical-CEDA Biennium: Political Polarization and Conflict (1933-1936)

Radical-CEDA Biennium (1933-1936)

With the victory of the center-right, the President instructed the government to make radical changes. Lerroux acted against Gil Robles and the CEDA, considering its political discourse too totalitarian and sympathetic to fascism. Agrarian reform was paralyzed with the Reform Act of Agrarian Reform. The delivery process of land was stopped, rural settlers were expelled, and expropriated land was returned to its former owners. Moreover, the freedom of contract and wage setting in the countryside was decreed.

Military reform was arrested, and key military positions were given to Goded, Cabanellas, Mola, and Franco, some well-known anti-republicans. Religious and educational policy also underwent radical change. Courts set a salary for the clergy and paralyzed the process of secularization of education. The development of the autonomy process was blocked. The Basque and Galician projects received no response. Catalan autonomy suffered a slowdown, since it transferred all powers set forth in its Statute.

By 1934, the country was clearly polarized. On the right, with a clear role of the CEDA, Gil Robles, and FE de las JONS, Primo de Rivera, and on the left, with the Republican Left of Azaña, the PSOE, Indalecio Largo Caballero and Prieto, the PCE, and the nationalists of Esquerra. The CNT remained on the sidelines. The entrance, in October 1934, of three CEDA ministers into the Government of Lerroux was interpreted by the left as a provocation, since it placed the Republic in the hands of supporters of fascism. This led the socialist leaders to call a general strike, which was joined by the Communists and anarchists in Asturias. The conflict spread to cities across the country, although its impact in the countryside was weak.

The government, pressured by Gil Robles, reacted harshly and instructed General Franco and the professional army to crush the rebellion in Africa. Two weeks later, on October 19, the uprising was quelled. The balance was grim: nearly 1,000 miners died (200 shot without trial) and about 400 civilian and military guards, including 33 religious, more than 2,000 wounded, and 30,000 prisoners (including Azaña, who had nothing to do with the revolt, and socialist leaders.)

After the Revolution of Asturias

After the Revolution of Asturias, the Government of Lerroux was destabilized and the CEDA was strengthened, introducing five cabinet ministers, including Gil Robles as minister of war. It was at this time when they took out the main counter-measures and even submitted a bill to amend the Constitution. In the fall of 1935, a political corruption scandal, called the "black market", splashed Lerroux and caused its collapse and the radicals. The more radical right, Calvo Sotelo, supported by the monarchical and oligarchical sectors most reactionary, founded the National Bloc that defended a fascist authoritarian state. Gil Robles and Calvo Sotelo explored the possibility of a military coup. Lerroux and Gil Robles resigned, and the President was called to head the government. Alcalá Zamora, fearing the totalitarian character of the leader of the CEDA, refused to do so. He dissolved the Parliament and called elections for February 1936.

Consequences

The Popular Front Government

In January 1936, the Republican Left, Republican Union, PSOE, PCE, POUM, UGT, and Esquerra Republicana (the CNT supported the front but did not sign) signed the pact of the Popular Front to fight fascism and save democracy. The Popular Front was an electoral platform with a minimum program: amnesty for the reprisals of the October Revolution, restoration of the Constitution of 1931, and enforcement of the Reform Biennium. After an election campaign, the Popular Front was victorious. The winner was the Socialist Party (89 deputies), CEDA (87), and Republican Left (84), followed at some distance by the other political formations. The vote on the right was focused on the interior and northern Spain, while the left won in the big cities, mining areas, and southern provinces. The election results showed that Spain was deeply divided into two antagonistic tendencies, with no center option to serve as a balance. Manuel Azaña formed a moderate left-wing government.

The triumph of the left accelerated preparations for a military conspiracy, coordinated by General Mola, to overthrow the Popular Front government. In this plot, the Army was not alone; its supporters included the most conservative sectors of society and the Church.