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| Leader | Manuel Azaña |
| Founded | January 1936 |
| Dissolved | 1939 |
| Ideology | |
| Political position |
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| Colors | Red |
| Party flag | |
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ThePopular Front (Spanish:Frente Popular) was anelectoral alliance and pact formed in January 1936 to contestthat year's general election by variousleft-wing political organizations during theSecond Spanish Republic. The alliance was led byManuel Azaña. InCatalonia and the modern-dayValencian Community, the coalition was known as theFront of the Lefts (Catalan:Front d'Esquerres).[1]
The Popular Front included theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE),Communist Party of Spain (PCE), and the republicans:Republican Left (IR), (led by Azaña) andRepublican Union (UR), led byDiego Martínez Barrio. This pact was supported byGalician (PG) andCatalannationalists (ERC), thePOUM, socialist unionWorkers' General Union (UGT), and theanarchisttrade union, theConfederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). Many anarchists who would later fight alongsidePopular Front forces during theSpanish Civil War did not support them in the election, urging abstention instead.
TheComintern had decided in 1935 that, in response to the growth offascism,popular fronts allyingcommunist parties with otheranti-fascist parties including Socialist and evenbourgeois parties were advisable.[2] In Spain, it was a coalition between leftist republicans and workers' organizations to defend social reforms of the first government (1931–1933) of the Second Spanish Republic, and liberate the prisoners,political prisoners according with the front propaganda, held since theAsturian October Revolution (1934).
The Popular Front defeated theNational Front [es;it] (a collection ofright-wing parties) and won the1936 election, forming the newSpanish Government. Manuel Azaña was elected President of the Republic in May 1936, but the PSOE did not join the government because of the opposition ofFrancisco Largo Caballero.
In July 1936,conservative/monarchist generals instigated acoup d'état which started theSpanish Civil War (1936–1939). The Government dissolved theSpanish Republican Army in the loyal territory and brought weapons to armed groups organized by the unions (UGT and CNT) and workers' parties (PSOE, PCE, POUM) that had initial success in defeating the Francoist forces inMadrid,Barcelona,Bilbao andValencia. In October the same year, the Spanish Republican Army was reorganized. After a protractedwar of attrition, GeneralFrancisco Franco would defeat the Republican forces and rule Spain as adictatorship until he died in 1975.
The Popular Front was formed in 1936 by a coalition of left-wing republican parties. The Popular Front's foundingmanifesto condemned the actions of the conservative-led government, demanding the release of political prisoners detained after November 1933, the re-hiring of state employees who had been suspended, fired, or transferred "without due process or for reasons of political persecution", it proposed establishing a judiciary independent from government control, the investigation and prosecution of acts of unwarranted violence by police, and revision of the Law of Public Order to protect the rights of citizens against arbitrary power.[3] The manifesto stressed political moderation against radicalism.[4]
The manifesto advocated a moderate left-leaning economic policy that rejected the idea of nationalization of land and instead supported the provision of state economic assistance to agriculture, a new progressive tenancy law, and promotion of collective forms of production.[3] It supportedprotectionist measures to defend national industry, encouraged state research to assist national industry, promised protection ofsmall businesses, major expansion ofpublic works, andprogressive tax reform.[3] The manifesto declared the Popular Front's opposition to class-based society, stating "The Republic conceived of by the Republican parties is not a Republic dominated by social or economic class interests, but a regime of democratic liberty..." but it promised the restoration of certain economic policies of the 1931–33 Spanish government, including increased wages for farmworkers.[3]
The manifesto promised the restoration of legislation guaranteeing regional autonomy that was revoked by the conservative-led government.[3]
Members to the coalition were:
It was also supported by:
In the1936 general election, the Popular Front won the election with its leaderManuel Azaña elected President of Spain.[5] The Popular Front received 4,654,116 votes compared to the opponent combined right-wing vote of 4,503,524 votes.[6] It elected 278 deputies – 99 of which belonged to the Socialists (PSOE), while the right-wing elected 124 deputies – 88 of which belonged to the CEDA.[6] Many of the elected members of the Popular Front were professional persons, several of whom were from wealthy backgrounds.[5] People of various political backgrounds within the Popular Front were appointed to President Azaña's cabinet, such asAmós Salvador [arz;ca;es], architect and wealthy landowner, andJosé Alonso Mallol [ca;es], a former Radical Socialist.[7] Upon the election of the Popular Front, the Popular Front held a victory march in Madrid with over 250,000 supporters, with its Socialist and Communist party components marching in uniform in the thousands.[7] The Popular Front immediately delivered its promise in its manifesto of rehiring workers fired for political reasons without due process and to reimburse them based on individual cases for wages lost to an extent of not less than thirty-nine days' wages nor more than six months.[8]
Azaña responded to the recent surge of acts of violence, arson, and vandalism byradical leftists against right-wing parties andCatholic Church institutions by denouncing these actions.[7] Uncontrolled political violence continued through to March with the greatest disturbance taking place inGranada where a violent act by right-wing political forces provoked ageneral strike and mass riot by left-wing political forces there.[9] In particular, violence involving Communists and Socialists versusFalangists resulted in multiple murders.[10] By July there had been 269 political killings.[11]
Azaña acceded to demands by left-wing movements for punishment of GeneralEduardo López Ochoa, the army leader of the 1934 Asturian campaign against workers' movements there.[10] The Spanish Republican government also made major changes to the Spanish Army, pro-Republican or neutral commanders were installed in multiple posts while commanders with questionable loyalties were moved to lesser or remote positions: for example, GeneralFrancisco Franco was removed as chief of staff of the army and moved to a position in theCanary Islands and GeneralEmilio Mola was demoted from a major command inSpanish Morocco to a position as commander of a brigade in Pamplona.[12]
The government did not stay in power long, mainly because of the conflict of ideological views by many of the parties. The only factor working for the government was unity for the conquest of fascism. After the Republican defeat in the Spanish Civil War, the popular front was dissolved, and Franco ruled Spain as a dictator until his death in 1975.[13]
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