Dictablanda of Dámaso Berenguer
However, historians have pointed out the impossibility of achieving this by attempting to transition towards a liberal regime by simply reestablishing the political order that existed before the 1923 coup and not considering the link between the Crown and Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship.
The Monarchy also lacked the support of the middle class (the Church’s influence in this sector of society was being displaced by democratic and socialist ideas), and intellectuals and university students clearly publicized their rejection of the King.
In the words of Juliá Santos, “Perhaps the Army in itself would never participate in a conspiracy against the Monarchy but neither would it do anything to save the throne, and there weren't few military personnel that hurriedly collaborated with the anti-monarchic conspirators”.
[3] The social changes that had occurred in the previous thirty years did not help the reestablishment of the Restoration period's political system This reality, along with the public's association of the Dictatorship with the Monarchy, can explain the rapid growth of Republicanism in the cities.
According to Juliá Santos, in 1930, “the hostility against the Monarchy spread like an unstoppable hurricane in meetings and demonstrations throughout Spain”;[5] “people began to cheerfully make for the streets, under any pretext, to praise the Republic”.
[3] The Republican cause also had the support of the intellectuals that formed the Group at the Service of the Republic, led by José Ortega y Gasset, Gregorio Marañón and Ramón Pérez de Ayala).
Apparently, (as no written account of the meeting was produced) the parts agreed to follow a strategy that put an end to King Alfonso XIII’s Monarchy and proclaim the Second Spanish Republic.
In order to coordinate the action, a “Revolutionary Committee” was formed, composed of Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, Miguel Maura, Alejandro Lerroux, Diego Martínez Barrio, Manuel Azaña, Marcelino Domingo, Álvaro de Albornoz, Santiago Casares Quiroga and Luis Nicolau d’Olwer, the nine representing the Republican faction, and Indalecio Prieto, Fernando de los Ríos and Francisco Largo Caballero, the three representing the Socialist faction.
[1] The Republican-Socialist Revolutionary Committee, presided by Alcalá-Zamora, which had its meetings at the Ateneo de Madrid, orchestrated a military insurrection, supported in the streets by a general strike.
[3]Nevertheless, the general strike was never called, and the military proclamation failed because captains Fermín Galán and Ángel García Hernández initiated the revolt in the Jaca garrison on December 12, three days before the established date.
On 13 February 1931 King Alfonso XIII ended General Berenguer’s dictablanda and named Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar new president.
[1] The Cabinet was also joined by a member of the Regionalist League, Joan Ventosa, with the objective, as Cambó explained a year later, of “obtaining for Catalonia’s cause what couldn’t be achieved until then”.
On Tuesday 14 April, the Republic was proclaimed from the balconies of city halls that were occupied by the new councilors, and King Alfonso XIII was forced to leave the country.
