The group was formed after the fall of the monarchy and the defeat of monarchist parties in the 1931 elections, in order to defend the interests of Roman Catholics in the new Spanish Republic.

[2] It emanated from the Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas and effectively formed a political party drawn from this hard-line monarchist movement.

[2] Even after the formation of CEDA the party's youth movement, Juventudes de Acción Popular (commonly known as the Greenshirts) continued to organise.

[4] However, in the spring of 1936, the decline of Popular Action was underlined when 15,000 Greenshirts left the movement to join Falange Española de las JONS instead.

[7] When Francisco Franco announced his decree establishing FET y de las JONS on 19 April 1937, Popular Action was one of a number of parties absorbed into this new pan-right group.