Aznar and the CEDA

The “national majority” for which José María Aznar demonstrated a few days ago has a fairly exact precedent during the Republic period in the CEDA, the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights, which was led by José María Gil-Robles – a character whom we would now unhesitatingly label as far-right – and which bore great responsibility in the construction of a suffocating climate, extreme polarization and social fracture, in the Spain of the thirties. Does this sound familiar? The CEDA was a conglomerate of right-wing parties, with a larger force that set the pace (Acción Popular, with presence throughout Spain) and then a multitude of small forces that were of regional scope, focused on the domination of the rural areas (most of them had the word "agrario" in their name: Acción Agraria y Ciudadana de Cuenca, Acción Agraria Riojana, Acción Agraria de León, etc.). Afterwards, to obtain electoral benefits above all, an amalgam or mishmash of reactionary forces with others of a more liberal or center-right profile were added. Gil-Robles and his obscure clique formally accepted democracy, but in reality what they wanted was to overthrow it or turn it into a regime tailored to their interests and based on lifelong bossism. They were convinced that the state was theirs (or rather: that the state was them), they felt a profound allergy to any form of diversity – especially linguistic and cultural diversity – and they had a slogan that was a complete inventory of their priorities: "Religion, family, homeland, order, work, and property". When the Popular Front of the left won the elections of February 1936, the CEDA actively pressured the outgoing government to declare a state of war and prevent the left from coming to power. They maintained that a left-wing government would open the door to class struggle and Catalan and Basque separatism, and that all of this was "anti-Spain". The most direct electoral and ideological competitor that the CEDA eventually had, and where a large part of its electorate ended up, was the fascist party Falange Española y de las JONS.Does all this remind you of anything? LA CEDA got along well with a far-right party like Acción Española (led by José Calvo Sotelo, who was Minister of Finance under the dictator Primo de Rivera and uncle of the former President of the Spanish government, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo) because they shared ultranationalism and national Catholicism (“For God and for Spain!”) and because they considered their political adversaries enemies of Spain who were leading it to perdition and ruin. This is precisely the doctrine that underpins Aznar's "national majority", in which, as a great novelty, elements from the "left" (they mean the PSOE) can find a place, provided they are like Emiliano García-Page. Aznar's (and Ayuso's and her dog Miguel Ángel Rodríguez's) message is that Feijóo is not on the right path, or does not have the necessary leadership, to build this national majority. As is often said, we will see what happens.