He founded Falange Española in October 1933, shortly before running as a candidate in the 1933 general election, in which he won a seat in the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic.

He assumed the role of messianic leader and charged himself with the task of saving Spain in founding a fascist party, but he encountered difficulties widening his support base during his whole political life.

He was court-martialed for punching a superior officer, the future Nationalist army leader, Brigadier General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano.

Primo de Rivera became a registered lawyer in 1925, and opened an office on a side street of Madrid very near the confluence of three principal avenues.

[14] On October 29, 1933, Primo de Rivera launched the Falange Española ("Spanish Phalanx"), a nationalist party, inspired in part with some ideas, such as the necessity of authority, hierarchical order of society, and grassroots populism, that were being expounded in Italy in the Fascist movement.

[15] He was a candidate in the general election of November 19 for the umbrella organization "Unión Agraria y Ciudadana," part of the broad conservative coalition Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (CEDA).

[14] The antisemitic positions within FE de las JONS were mainly led by Onésimo Redondo, with Ledesma and Primo de Rivera largely indifferent to the issue;[20] however, Falangists attacked the Jewish-owned SEPU department stores in the spring of 1935;[21] In the view of Gonzalo Álvarez Chillida, both José Antonio and Ledesma probably thought that such antisemitic raids could enhance mobilization within the purportedly threatened small-business sector.

[24] In 1935 Primo de Rivera collaborated in editing the lyrics of the Falangist anthem, "Cara al Sol" (Face to the Sun).

On March 14, 1936, he was arrested in Madrid and charged with illegal possession of firearms (at that time, Spain was awash in privately held weapons on the part of all political factions).

Others contend that it was the Republican government who rejected the deal of the Nationalists and that General Franco approved several failed commando raids on the Alicante prison to try to rescue José Antonio.

The initially marginal party gained ascendancy over the course of the war, partly as a result of its prominent role in the brutal repression that took place behind Nationalist lines.

The reign of Francisco Franco nurtured a convenient cult of personality around the dead figure of Primo de Rivera whom Falangists dubbed "El Ausente" (The Missing One).

[36] This name was created during the period after de Rivera's execution but before this was officially confirmed to the Nationalist public at large by its leadership on 18 July 1938.

While the Falangist leadership knew the truth, they chose to keep it a secret for fear of the impact it would have on morale, though rumours of his death would continue to circulate for the period.

With the arrival of democratic rule, the legacy of Primo de Rivera and the cult of personality created by the Spanish state started to wane circumspectly.

In 1981, the Madrid City Council moved to reinstate the original name of its grand avenue, the Gran Vía, which Franco had renamed "Avenida José Antonio Primo de Rivera" in 1939.

[39] At the end of the war in 1939, the remains of Primo de Rivera were carried on the shoulders of Falangist relay teams from Alicante to Madrid (a 300-kilometre journey) and provisionally interred at El Escorial.

[40][41][42] In 1959, Primo de Rivera was exhumed and re-interred 13 km away in the basilica of the Valley of the Fallen, located in the Guadarrama mountain range.

This did not establish a clear precedent for moving Primo de Rivera, given that he died a victim of the Civil War like most of the other burials at the site.

However, in late 2022 it was reported that Primo de Rivera's family had requested the exhumation of his remains on the grounds that the deceased wanted a Catholic burial.

The Democratic Memory Law of 2022 envisaged the future of the Valley of the Fallen as a civil cemetery, and accordingly the government proposed to deconsecrate the crypt of the church in order to promote national reconciliation.

[44] Primo de Rivera's family arranged for his remains to be exhumed from the Valley in April 2023 and reburied in Saint Isidore Cemetery in Madrid.

[46] Primo de Rivera put much faith on corporatism, one of the few early Falangist tenets framed in positive terms, adopted from Italian Fascism.

[49][50] Willing to offer an alternative to the most basic fundamentals behind liberal democracy, he also non-accidentally addressed some words of scorn to "that terrible man who was called Juan Jacobo Rousseau [sic]" during the foundational meeting of the Falange.

[52] It has been noted that at some point he benignly put his hopes on politicians far from his own Fascist stances such as republican Manuel Azaña (in this case for a very brief time) or socialist Indalecio Prieto as potential candidates to alleviate his self-imposed burden for "saving" the country.

[46] According to Álvarez Chillida, Primo de Rivera's written works did not feature a marked antisemitism when compared to other Falangist leaders.[n.