Since 1935, the Communist Party advocated a Popular Front strategy, in agreement with the Comintern's directions and in hope of succeeding in winning elections as in Spain and France.
With this aim in mind, the Communist Party toned down its revolutionary discourse, advocating compromise with "bourgeois democracy" and supporting industrial development of the country.
On the other hand, the Socialist Party remained skeptical towards such an alliance, and entered the Popular Front only when the electoral victory of the right-wing candidate, Gustavo Ross, seemed inescapable.
Pedro Aguirre Cerda also nominated Pablo Neruda as Special Consul in Paris for immigration, and the latter organized the journey of the Winnipeg, which brought to Chile 2,200 Spanish Republican refugees.
[3] The Popular Front was supported by artists such as Neruda, Gabriela Mistral or the Surrealist collective La Mandrágora, created in 1938 by Teófilo Cid, Enrique Gómez-Correa and Braulio Arenas.