Spanish Renovation

Spanish Renovation (Spanish: Renovación Española, RE) was a Spanish monarchist political party active during the Second Spanish Republic, advocating the restoration of Alfonso XIII of Spain as opposed to Carlism. Associated with the Acción Española think-tank, the party was led by Antonio Goicoechea and José Calvo Sotelo. In 1937, during the course of the Spanish Civil War, it formally disappeared after Francisco Franco merged into a single Party a variety of far right organizations in the rebel zone.

Spanish Renovation

Renovación Española
LeaderAntonio Goicoechea
José Calvo Sotelo
FoundedDe-facto: 16 January 1933[1]
De-jure: February 1933[2]
Dissolved8 March 1937[3]
Split fromPopular Action
Merged intoFET y de las JONS
HeadquartersMadrid, Spain
IdeologyMonarchism (Alfonsism)
Authoritarian conservatism[4]
Neo-traditionalism[4]
Totalitarianism[4]
Political positionFar-right
Party flag

History

Calvo Sotelo delivering a speech in 1935

The group was formed in January 1933 after Goicoechea and some followers split from Acción Popular and were given Alfonso's approval to form a new party, although from the outset RE maintained good relations with the Carlists and sought to bring them into various anti-Republican conspiracies.[5] Even before the Civil War RE was linked to the Falange, paying it a 10,000 peseta monthly subsidy.[6] RE espoused a kind of authoritarian statist corporatism, particularly marked after Calvo Sotelo took control of the party.[7]

The group was one of the first amongst those involved in conspiracy against the Popular Front government to endorse Franco as overall leader.[8] RE was also closely linked to the military group Unión Militar Española which played an important role in bringing about civil war.[9] During the opening stages of the civil war RE was close to General Emilio Mola, who consulted regularly with the group's leadership.[10]

The assassination of Calvo Sotelo, who was much more personally popular and a better orator than the generally ineffectual Goicoechea, in July 1936 had weakened RE somewhat and before long they became wholly subservient to Franco in an attempt to retain influence for a group that had little popular support.[11] Along with a variety of other far right groups RE disappeared in April 1937 with the formation of the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista.[12] Recognising that his power base was flimsy at best Goicoechea immediately accepted the decree and dissolved RE.[13]

Notes

    References

    1. Goicoechea Cosculluela, Antonio (6 January 1933). "Hacia un frente contrarrevolucionario español" [Towards a Spanish Counterrevolutionary Front]. Acción Española (in Spanish). Vol. 4 no. 20. Spain. pp. 285–293. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
    2. "La entidad Renovación Española se constituye" [Spanish Renewal is Constituted]. ABC (in Spanish). Madrid. 24 February 1933. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
    3. Payne, Stanley G. (1961). Falange: A History of Spanish Fascism. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press. p. 156. ISBN 0-8047-0058-3. OCLC 371552.
    4. González Calleja, Eduardo (2008). "La violencia y sus discursos: los límites de la «fascistización» de la derecha española durante el régimen de la Segunda República". Ayer (71): 109–110. JSTOR 41325979.
    5. Martin Blinkhorn, Carlism and crisis in Spain, 1931-1939, CUP Archive, 1975, p. 108
    6. Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-39, London: Phoenix, 2007, p. 45
    7. Blinkhorn, Martin. "Conservatism, traditionalism and fascism in Spain, 1898–1937". Fascists and Conservatives: The Radical Right and the Establishment in Twentieth-Century Europe. Routledge. p. 131. ISBN 0203-39323-6.
    8. Paul Preston, Franco, London: Fontana, 1995, p. 125
    9. Preston, Franco, p. 136
    10. Preston, Franco, p. 155; p. 157
    11. Preston, Franco, pp. 249-50
    12. Beevor, The Battle for Spain, p. 285
    13. Preston, Franco, p. 271
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