Party of the Democratic Centre (Spain)

The note attempted to justify the previous day's cabinet reshuffle, carried out by Prime Minister Manuel Portela Valladares with the support of President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, by describing it as 'a necessary effort to create a Republican center'.

[3][4][5] The party's manifesto, published on January 28, 1936, 'rejected both "civil war" and "red revolution"' whilst 'stressing constitutional process, national unity and progress.'.

[6] In the run-up to the 1936 Spanish general elections, Portela and the PCD initially tried to forge an alliance with the political left.

[10] The PCD's failure to make a breakthrough in the 1936 elections has been attributed to both Portela's attempt to try and rapidly build a new party ex nihilo in a period of increased radicalisation,[11] and his failure to build the strong alliance with either the left or the right that he deemed necessary.

[14] This total later fell to 18[15] when elections in Cuenca and Granada were re-held in an attempt to mitigate the impact of acts of electoral fraud carried out by the political right.