Republican Union (Spain, 1934)
The Republican Union (Spanish: Unión Republicana) was a Spanish republican party founded in 1934 by Diego Martinez Barrio.
Republican Union Unión Republicana | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Diego Martínez Barrio |
| Founded | 1934 |
| Dissolved | 1959 |
| Merged into | Spanish Democratic Republican Action |
| Ideology | Republicanism Progressivism Social liberalism Laicism (State secularism) |
| Political position | Centre-left |
It was formed as a result of a merger of several small republican parties, including notably Diego Martinez Barrio's Radical Democratic Party founded in May 1934 by a split from Alejandro Lerroux's Radical Party in protest at the latter's alliance with the right-wing CEDA.
Integrated in the Popular Front ahead of the 1936 election, the party won 38 seats becoming the fourth largest party. It formed a governing coalition with Manuel Azaña's Republican Left. Though it participated in all republican governments during the Spanish Civil War, it played a minor role starting under Largo Caballero's government.
In exile in Mexico, it was the main support of the Republican government-in-exile until it was dissolved in 1959 to found the Spanish Democratic Republican Action along with the Republican Left.
Bibliography
- Nigel Townson. The Crisis of Democracy in Spain: Centrist Politics Under the Second Republic, 1931-1936. Sussex Academic Press. 2000. pp. 2–3.
- Beevor, Antony. The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Penguin Books. 2006. p. 456.