Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas | |
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| Leader | José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones |
| Founded | 4 March 1933 |
| Dissolved | 19 April 1937 |
| Preceded by | Popular Action |
| Merged into | FET y de las JONS |
| Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
| Newspaper | El Debate |
| Youth wing | Juventudes de Acción Popular |
| Membership (1933) | 700,000 (party's claim)[1] |
| Ideology | National conservatism[2] Authoritarian conservatism Political Catholicism[1] Accidentalism Corporatism |
| Political position | Right-wing to far-right |
| Colors | Blue |
| Party flag | |
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| Part of a series on |
| Conservatism in Spain |
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The Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (lit. 'Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights', CEDA) was a Spanish political party in the Second Spanish Republic.[3] A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Ángel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined itself in terms of the 'affirmation and defence of the principles of Christian civilization,' translating this theoretical stand into a political demand for the revision of the anti-Catholic passages of the republican constitution. CEDA saw itself as a defensive organisation, formed to protect religious toleration, family, and private property rights.[4] José María Gil-Robles declared his intention to "give Spain a true unity, a new spirit, a totalitarian polity..." and went on to say "Democracy is not an end but a mean to achieve the conquest of the new state. When the time comes, either parliament submits or we will eliminate it."[5] The CEDA held Fascist-style rallies, called Gil-Robles "Jefe", the Castillian Spanish equivalent to Duce, and sometimes debated whether CEDA might lead a "March on Madrid" (similar to the Italian Fascist March on Rome) to forcefully seize power.[6]
The CEDA claimed that it was defending the Catholic Church in Spain and "Christian civilization" against authoritarian socialism, State Atheism, and religious persecution. CEDA often claimed that the Far Left political parties leading the Second Spanish Republic had already made politics a matter of Marxism versus anti-Marxism.[7] With the advent of the rise of the Nazi Party to power in Germany, the CEDA emulated the propaganda ploys of the Nazis, including a similar emphasis upon obedience to authority, nationalism, and social hierarchy.[7] Gil-Robles observed a Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg and was greatly influenced by it, henceforth becoming committed to creating a single anti-Marxist and pro-Catholic political party in Spain.[7]
CEDA was largely the party of practicing Roman Catholics, the middle-class, and small holding farm families. It would ultimately become the most popular individual party in Spain in the 1936 elections.[8]
The CEDA failed to make the substantive electoral gains from 1933 to 1936 (though it did see an increase in the number of individual votes[8]) that were needed for it to form government. This resulted in right-wing voters draining away and turning instead towards the Monarchist Renovación Española political party and its leader José Calvo Sotelo.[9] Outrage over both Calvo Sotelo's 1936 assassination and the Red Terror unleashed by death squads linked to all Far Left parties against the Catholic Church in Spain led to CEDA abandoning moderation and providing support for the military uprising against the republic, which included donating its electoral funds to the initial leader of the Nationalist faction, General Emilio Mola.[10] Subsequently, many members of CEDA's youth movement, Juventudes de Acción Popular (JAP; "Youth for Popular Action") defected en masse to the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista or "Falange".[10]
- ^ a b Blinkhorn, Martin (2002), Democracy and Civil War in Spain 1932–1939, Routledge, p. 15
- ^ Blinkhorn, Martin (2002), Democracy and Civil War in Spain 1932–1939, Routledge, p. 140
- ^ Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Penguin Group. p. xxx. ISBN 978-0-14-303765-1.
- ^ Mary Vincent, Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic, Chapter 9, p. 202
- ^ Paul Preston. The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge. 3rd edition. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 64.
- ^ Paul Preston. The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge. 3rd edition. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007. 2006 pp. 45, 69.
- ^ a b c Paul Preston. The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge. 3rd edition. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 62.
- ^ a b Payne, Stanley G. The Franco Regime, 1936–1975. University of Wisconsin Press, 2011, p. 46
- ^ Paul Preston. The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge. 3rd edition. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007. 2006 pp. 88–89.
- ^ a b Paul Preston. The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge. 3rd edition. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 89.