Republicanism in Spain is a political position and movement that believesSpain should be arepublic.
There has existed in Spain a persistent trend ofrepublican thought, especially throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, that has manifested itself in diverse political parties and movements over the entire course of thehistory of Spain. While these movements have shared the objective of establishing a republic, during these three centuries there have surged distinct schools of thought on the form republicans would want to give to the SpanishState:unitary orfederal.
Despite the country's long-lasting schools of republican movements, the government of Spain has been organized as a republic during only two short periods in its history, which totaled 9 years and 8 months of republican government. TheFirst Spanish Republic lasted from February 1873 to December 1874, and theSecond Spanish Republic lasted from April 1931 to April 1939.
Under themonarchical system of government currently in force in Spain, there are movements and political parties throughout the entire political spectrum that advocate for a Third Spanish Republic. Despite enjoying a wider support within theleft wing political camp, there are alsoliberal,right-wing,conservative andnationalist parties espousing republican stances.
The roots of Spanishrepublicanism arose out of liberal thought in the wake of theFrench Revolution. The first manifestations of republicanism occurred during thePeninsular War, in which Spain and nearby regions fought for independence fromNapoleon, 1808–1814. During the reign ofFerdinand VII (1813–1833) there were several liberalist militarypronunciamientos, but it was not until the reign ofIsabella II (1833–1868) that the first clearly republican and anti-monarchist movements appeared.
Federalist republicanism, emerged in the 1850s and 1860s, had a key figure in the person ofRoque Barcia Martí [es].[1]
TheGlorious Revolution of 1868 overthrew Isabella II, but the Cortes (Spanish parliament)elected in 1869 resulted in a majority of legislators belonging to the coalition betweenprogressives,liberals and"cimbrian" democrats [es] in favour of a liberal constitutional monarchy. A search for a new monarch among several European royal courts ensued and the Italian princeAmadeo I ofSavoy was chosen. But Spain was in a period of profound instability: Legitimist monarchistCarlists (reactionaries and staunch defenders of theAncien régime) hadlaunched another war against the country's progressive direction; there was colonial unrest in SpanishCuba via theTen Years' War; and the moderate-liberal monarchy was met with stiff opposition from all sides, by republicans to its left, and from its right by a large part of thearistocracy and theCatholic Church; thus King Amadeo abdicated on 11 February 1873.
On that same day in 1873, the Cortes proclaimed theFirst Spanish Republic.
However, the Republic fell victim to the same instabilities provoked by the ongoing wars and the division amongst republicans. The majority of republicans wereFederalists, and they therefore supported the formation of afederal democratic republic, but there was also aunitary republican current. Moreover, within the Federalists there was an intransigentpro-confederation sector that was infuriated and later quashed by theCantonal Revolution of 1873. The complicated political situation is demonstrated by the fact that in just eleven months there were four presidents of the Republic:Estanislao Figueras,Francisco Pi y Margall,Nicolás Salmerón andEmilio Castelar.
On 3 January 1874, GeneralManuel Pavía leda coup d'état that established a unitary republican dictatorship presided byMarshal Francisco Serrano. The regime was followed by apronunciamiento on 29 December 1874 inSagunto, in which Brigadier GeneralArsenio Martínez Campos proclaimed the need to restore the monarchy. Following the acceptance of the coup by the Captain General of Madrid,Fernando Primo de Rivera, a new government led byAntonio Cánovas del Castillo was formed putting and end to the Republic, bringing the so-calledRestoration and the ascension ofAlfonso XII (son of Isabella II) to the throne.
After being banished from the institutions, republicanism underwent a heap of troubles, with differences of approach becoming apparent between those followers ofPimargallian "pactist" federalism and those ready to jump into Castelar's possibilism in regard of the new conservative regime.[3] Castelar led thePartido Demócrata—later thePartido Demócrata Posibilista (PDP) andCristino Martos thePartido Progresista Demócrata. Nonetheless, these parties, immersed in a system of unequalcensitary suffrage between 1878 and 1890, were unable to compete with the large dynastic parties: theLiberal-Conservative Party of Cánovas del Castillo andLiberal–Fusionist Party ofSagasta. Later Pi y Margall formed thePartido Republicano Democrático Federal (PRDF),Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla andJosé María Esquerdo created thePartido Republicano Progresista (PRP), and Nicolás Salmerón established thePartido Republicano Centralista (PRC). These parties contributed a diverse set of independent republican deputies to the Spanish parliament.
Factions of the PDP and the PRP branched off and fused to form thePartido Republicano Nacional. In 1898 theFusión Republicana was formed, and in 1903 the creation of theRepublican Union attempted to represent and fuse all streams of republican thought. However, two parties split from the Republican Union:Alejandro Lerroux'sPartido Republicano Radical andVicente Blasco'sPartido de Unión Republicana Autonomista. In that time theCatalanCentre Nacionalista Republicà (CNR) appeared. Following the acts of "Tragic Week" inBarcelona in 1909, republican parties and theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party ("PSOE" in Spanish) joined together to form theConjunción Republicano-Socialista, at the same time as the Catalan sectors of the Republican Union, the CNR, and the PRDF formed theRepublican Nationalist Federal Union. LaterMelquíades Álvarez split from theConjunción Republicano-Socialista to form theReformist Party.
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After 1917, the Restoration regime entered a state of crisis, which finally resulted in thecoup d'état of Miguel Primo de Rivera, Captain-General of Catalonia. Primo de Rivera established adictatorship with the approval of the KingAlfonso XIII. But thecrisis of this dictatorship lead to the resignation of Primo de Rivera in 1930 and made the fall of the monarchy inevitable. The bulk of Republican forces convened in August 1930 and reached an agreement, thePact of San Sebastián, delimiting a common strategy to bring the republic, also conforming a revolutionary committee. On 14 April 1931, two days after a round of municipal elections (understood as a plebiscite on monarchy) in which republicans won alandslide victory, Alfonso XIII fled the country, theSecond Spanish Republic was proclaimed and a provisional government presided byNiceto Alcalá Zamora was formed.
The Second Republic adopted the form of aunitary republic, allowing a group of provinces to form self-governing regions, a provision availed of to form the regions of Catalonia and theBasque Country. Its first President of the Republic (head of state) was Niceto Alcalá Zamora, of theliberal-CatholicLiberal Republican Right party.
After the victory of the socialist and left-republican coalition in the June 1931 elections,Manuel Azaña, ofRepublican Action (later theRepublican Left) was elected president of the Council of Ministers (premier). Azaña's government attempted to pass many reforms, such as the Agrarian Reform Law, and is consequently known as theBienio Reformista ("Two Reformist Years"). 1931 also saw the introduction of trulyuniversal suffrage, for the first time in Spanish history: previously restricted to men, the right to vote was nowextended to women.
The Republic soon had to confront the political polarization of the era, at the same time thattotalitarian dictatorships were rising in power in Europe. The political instability of the time can be seen by the fact that, in 1932, there had already been a failed coup led byGeneral José Sanjurjo.
The general elections of 1933 saw the emergence ofJosé María Gil-Robles'sConfederación Española de Derechas Autónomas, an umbrella organisation of various conservative andCatholic-nationalist parties. The CEDA emerged as the largest single parliamentary group, but lacked a majority of its own. As a result, Alcalá Zamora opted to appoint a cabinet made up of various centre-right radical and liberal parties led by Alejandro Lerroux. This cabinet too suffered from too narrow a majority, and Lerroux was eventually obliged to extend its support by including several CEDA ministers.
The inclusion of the CEDA, considered to be insincere in its support for the existing regime, was the trigger for the incidents of October 1934. Various initiatives were launched, ranging from a declaration of federal autonomy byLluís Companys, head of thegovernment of the Catalan region, designed to limit the CEDA's ability to intervene in the region; ageneral strike by the socialist movement, designed to dissuade Alcala and Lerroux from including the CEDA ministers; and a worker uprising in the northern region of Asturias that united the local branches of the socialist movement to those of theCommunist Party of Spain and the syndicalistNational Confederation of Labour.
The violent repression of the Rising, especially in Asturias, the suppression of Catalan home rule, and the arrest of numerous prominent political figures who had been uninvolved in the unrest, motived the formation of the SpanishPopular Front. This included the socialist movement (thePSOE andUGT), the communistPCE andPOUM parties, and the left-republican partiesRepublican Left, theRepublican Union andCatalan Republican Left, as well as several minor political parties.
The Popular Front emerged victorious in the legislative elections of 1936, forming a government of republican parties and elevating Manuel Azaña as head of state.
On 17 July 1936, there was amilitary uprising that failed to seize control of government but which, by taking control of much ofSpanish Morocco, provoked the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War. While the republican regime was abandoned by the other European democracies and only received military support from theSoviet Union, the nationalist rebels were supported byNazi Germany andfascist Italy, whose support was pivotal in the final victory of the nationalist uprising. The triumphantNationalist faction established theSpanish State that lasted untilFrancisco Franco's death and the subsequentSpanish transition to democracy.Emilio Mola, leader of the uprising against the Second Republic, attempted to establish a "republican dictatorship,"[4] but in 1947 Franco declared his authoritarian reign as aregency for the monarchy, namingJuan Carlos de Borbón, grandson of the ousted Alfonso XIII, as his successor and the next king in 1969. Juan Carlos ascended to the throne upon the Caudillo's death in 1975.
ASpanish Republican government in exile was established inParis in April 1939. Thousands of Republicans fled the country to France as well. Many of them were captured afterFrance was occupied byNazi Germany in 1940; some 7,000 died in concentration camps, especiallyMauthausen-Gusen, during theHolocaust.[5] The Republican government in exile moved toMexico City in 1940, returning to Paris in 1946.
The anti-Francoist opposition failed in their attempts to bring aboutFrancoist Spain's downfall, and after his death they started a process of negotiation with the government that led to theSpanish transition to democracy. In 1977, after the first democratic general elections since the 1930s, theSpanish Republican government-in-exile, maintained since their defeat in the Civil War, dissolved itself and officially recognized the post-Francoist democracy.[6] Spain established a constitution with democraticparliamentary monarchy as the form of government. The constitution was supported byUCD,PSOE,PCE,AP,PDPC andUDC-CCC. During the drafting of the constitution, UCD, AP and PCE supported the monarchy as the form of government. PSOE abstained on that point and supported an amendment to establish a republic.[7] However, in the 80s, the Communist Party (PCE) and its coalition the United Left resumed advocating for a Third Spanish Republic. There are also other regional parties advocating republicanism.
In 2016 an unpublished interview with the former president Adolfo Suarez in 1995 came to light, where he confesses that he included the word king and monarchy in the1977 Political Reform Law so as not to have to consult the issue of the monarchy to the citizenry, as polls told him he would lose.[8]
In 2018, theCatalan parliament passed a motion condemning kingFelipe VI forhis role in theCatalan crisis and demanding the abolition of the monarchy.[9][10]
Spain's government-runCentro de Investigaciones Sociológicas has not conducted any surveys in which respondents were asked their preference of the system of government, monarchy or republic. However, the CIS has published surveys on the "value" respondents place on the monarchy, and the agency has occasionally published questions regarding the current monarch, observing a progressive decline in support for the monarchy.[11] Studies show that the monarchy has experienced declining public confidence more than any other government institution, especially among youths aged 18 to 24, who have expressed negative opinions about the monarchy in CIS studies since 2006.[12][13] For the first time ever in 2011, a majority of the population said they did not support the current monarchy.[14] However, the CIS ceased surveying views of the monarchy after April 2015, when poll respondents gave it an average rating of 4.34 out of 10.[15][16]
A study published on 24 June 2004 found 55% of Spaniards agreeing ("más bien de acuerdo") with the statement that "the Monarchy discussion is long ago a thing of the past."[17][note 1] In 2016, it was revealed that during a 1995 interview,Adolfo Suárez had confessed that he included the word 'King' in the1977 Political Reform Act in order to avoid a referendum on republic, as secret surveys reportedly commissioned by the State did not deliver a favorable results for the monarchist option back at the time.[18]
Spanish newspapers also sporadically publish surveys and opinion polls with questions related to the monarchy and of the survey respondents' political affiliation as monarchist or republican, among other options:
| Fieldwork date | Polling firm | Republican | Monarchist | Indifferent/ No opinion | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr 2025 | Electomania | 51.9% | 42.4% | 5.7% | |||
| 3 Oct 2024 | Electomania | 54.1% | 42.5% | 3.4% | |||
| 6 Jan 2024 | Sociometrica | 32.8% | 58.6% | 8.6% | |||
| Nov 2023 | Simple Lógica | 44.7% | 43.5% | 11.8% | |||
| 31 Oct 2023 | NC Report | 31.4% | 65.7% | 2.9% | |||
| 31 Oct 2023 | Leonor, Princess of Asturias turns 18 and swears allegiance to the Constitution | ||||||
| 26 Jul–4 Aug 2023 | Electomania | 53.1% | 44.7% | 2.2% | |||
| 29 Jan–4 Feb 2022 | Electomania | 51.7% | 44.3% | 4% | |||
| 23–24 Nov 2021 | SW Demoscopia | 43.8% | 56.2% | – | |||
| 11–15 Oct 2021 | Invymark | 45.8% | 44.3% | 9.9% | |||
| 24 Sep–4 Oct 2021 | 40dB | 39.4% | 31.0% | 29.6% | |||
| 27 Aug–3 Sep 2021 | Electomania | 48.0% | 49.9% | 2.1% | |||
| 16–22 Jul 2021 | GAD3 | 36.9% | 55.3% | 7.8% | |||
| 16–18 Jun 2021 | NC Report | 38.9% | 53.7% | 7.4% | |||
| 14 Apr 2021 | Electomania | 46.8% | 49.4% | 3.9% | |||
| 5 Oct 2020 | 40dB | 40.9% | 34.9% | 24.2% | |||
| 14 Sep 2020 | Electomania | 47.6% | 48% | 4.3% | |||
| 16 Aug 2020 | GAD3 | 33.5% | 56.3% | 10.1% | |||
| 10 Aug 2020 | Sigma Dos | 38.5% | 48.4% | 13.2% | |||
| 6–8 Aug 2020 | NC Report | 38.5% | 54.8% | 6.7% | |||
| 4–5 Aug 2020 | Sociometrica | 40.8% | 54.9% | 4.3% | |||
| 3 Aug 2020 | ElectomaniaArchived 5 August 2020 at theWayback Machine | 55.5% | 39.4% | 5.1% | |||
| 21–24 Jul 2020 | NC Report | 31.5% | 58.3% | 10.2% | |||
| 9–10 Jul 2020 | ElectomaniaArchived 13 July 2020 at theWayback Machine | 53.1% | 44.4% | 2.6% | |||
| 6–10 Jul 2020 | Invymark | 39.0% | 31.2% | 29.3% | |||
| 6–10 Jul 2020 | SocioMétrica | 49.3% | 48.9% | 1.8% | |||
| 17–19 Jun 2020 | Electomania | 47.6% | 48.4% | 4.0% | |||
| 28 Apr–4 May 2020 | Sináptica | 51.6% | 34.6% | 13.8% | |||
| 8–12 Apr 2020 | ElectomaniaArchived 27 February 2021 at theWayback Machine | 47.0% | 47.5% | 5.4% | |||
| 28 May–3 Jun 2019 | IMOP Insights | 46.1% | 50.8% | 3.1% | |||
| 22 Dec–5 Jan 2019 | SocioMétrica | 41.9% | 43.1% | 15.0% | |||
| 2–5 Nov 2018 | YouGov | 48% | 35% | 17% | |||
| 10 Oct 2018 | Electomania | 45.6% | 48.1% | 6.3% | |||
| Sep 2018 | Podemos | 46.0% | 26.8% | 27.2% | |||
| 25 Jul 2018 | Electomania | 47.4% | 49.9% | 2.7% | |||
| 23 Mar–6 Apr 2018 | Ipsos | 37% | 24% | 40% | |||
| 9–11 Jun 2015 | Sigma Dos | 33.7% | 61.5% | 4.8% | |||
| 23 Jun 2014 | NC Report | 28.3% | 57.6% | 14.0% | |||
| 19 Jun 2014 | KingJuan Carlos I abdicates andFelipe VI becomesKing of Spain | ||||||
| 7 Jun 2014 | TNS Demoscopia | 35.5% | 60.0% | 4.5% | |||
| 4–5 Jun 2014 | Metroscopia | 36% | 49% | 15% | |||
| 3–5 Jun 2014 | Sigma Dos | 35.6% | 55.7% | 8.6% | |||
| 2 Jun 2014 | Invymark | 36.3% | 53.1% | 10.6% | |||
| 28–31 Dec 2013 | Sigma Dos | 43.3% | 49.9% | 6.8% | |||
| 14 Apr 2013 | NC Report | ? | 63.5% | ? | |||
| 21–28 Dec 2012 | Sigma Dos | 41.0% | 53.8% | 5.2% | |||
| 23 Apr 2012 | Invymark | 34.0 | 57.9% | 8.1% | |||
| 22 Apr 2012 | NC Report[dead link] | 35.5% | 48.5% | 15.9% | |||
| 27–29 Dec 2011 | Sigma Dos | 33% | 60% | 7% | |||
| 14–15 Dec 2011 | Metroscopia | 37% | 49% | 14% | |||
| 12 Dec 2011 | Invymark | 37.0% | 59.3% | 3.7% | |||
| 20 Jun 2011 | Invymark | 36.8% | 42.1% | 21.1% | |||
| 14 Apr 2011 | Metroscopia | 39% | 48% | 10% | |||
| 2–4 Nov 2010 | Metroscopia | 35% | 57% | 8% | |||
| 31 Oct 2010 | ASEP | 26% | 57% | 17% | |||
| 6 Dec 2009 | Metroscopia | 25% | 66% | 9% | |||
| 15 Aug 2008 | Sigma Dos | 16.2% | 22.7%[a] | 57.9% | |||
| 5 Jan 2008 | Sigma Dos | 12.8% | 43.1%[c] | 39.9% | |||
| 6 Oct 2007 | GESOP | 24.8% | 50.6% | 24.6% | |||
| 4–5 Oct 2007 | Metroscopia | 22% | 69% | 9%[19] | |||
| 28 Sep 2006 | Opina | 25% | 65% | 10% | |||
| 20 Nov 2005 | Sigma Dos | 23.5% | 38.0% | 38.5% | |||
| 20 Nov 2000 | Sigma Dos | 15.9% | 43.0% | 41.1% | |||
| 1998 | MetroscopiaArchived 22 October 2020 at theWayback Machine | 11% | 72% | 17% | |||
| 1997 | MetroscopiaArchived 22 October 2020 at theWayback Machine | 15% | 65% | 20% | |||
| Nov 1996 | Metroscopia | 13% | 66% | 21% | |||
| 30 Sep–2 Oct 1996 | Opina | 15.9%[d] | 46.9%[e] | 37.2% | |||
After 2005, surveys have measured a larger support for republicanism amongst Spanish youth, with more 18- to 29-year-olds identifying themselves as republicans than those identifying as monarchists, according toEl Mundo.[20] Despite this, some surveys show the public in favour of the monarchy, and according to an August 2008El Mundo poll, 47.9% of Spaniards would have liked to democratically elect King Juan Carlos, and 42.3% of respondents thought that the succession of his heirPrince Felipe should be put to aplebiscite.[21] According to the newspaperPúblico's "Publicscopio" section in December 2009, 61% survey respondents were in favour of amending theSpanish Constitution to allow the Spanish people to decide between a monarchy and a republic,[22] a number that increased by 3% compared to the data collected the year before by the same newspaper.[23] According to a 2012 survey byGallup, 54% of Spaniards were in favor of a referendum to choose the form of government (monarchy or republic), and support was always found to be even higher when surveying younger age groups (support was 73.1% amongst 18- to 24-year-olds, but only 34.5% for those above 65 years). Support for such a referendum is also higher amongst the more educated groups of the population, voters in left-wing political parties, and between members of the upper and upper-middle classes. In 2013, as a result of the accusation ofPrincess Cristina in theNóos scandal, republican support has begun to increase greater than ever before.
When Juan Carlos announced hisabdication on 2 June 2014, thousands of protesters took to the squares of several Spanish towns and cities demanding a referendum on whether the monarchy should continue.[24] Subsequent surveys showed that the abdication improved the image of the Crown thanks to a positive image of the new king,Felipe VI, but since then, support for the monarchy has dropped to a technical tie between its supporters and supporters of the republic, according to surveys in recent years, therefore becoming the European country with the highest percentage of detractors of the current monarchical state model.[25][26][27]
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Title X of theSpanish Constitution establishes that the approval of a new constitution or the approval of any constitutional amendment affecting the Preliminary Title, or Section I of Chapter II of Title I (on Fundamental Rights and Public Liberties) or Title II (onthe Crown), the so-called "protected provisions", are subject to a special process[55][56] that requires:
