José Antonio Primo de Rivera y el Frente Popular

Abstract

This article analyzes the actions of both the leader of the Falange Espanola de las JONS Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera and his organization from the stage prior to the Popular Front elections until the death of Primo in November 1936. The fundamentals of the ideology and the Fascist program of Falange, including the contradiction between its extreme right positioning and its anti-conservatism, are analyzed in order to explain Primo’s positioning after the Falange’s electoral defeat; his final acceptance of military coup of July; and his failed attempt to stop the war in the following August by proposing a reconciliation government agreement with a program containing some of the measures of the Popular Front program.