José Antonio Primo de Rivera

For other people called Jose Rivera, see Jose Rivera.

José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 3rd Marquis of Estella (April 24, 1903, Madrid– November 20, 1936, Alicante), was a Spanish politician, the leader of the fascist party Falange Española ("Spanish Phalanx"). He was executed by the Spanish republican government during the course of the Spanish civil war.

Life

José Antonio Primo de Rivera was the oldest son of General Miguel Primo de Rivera, who was prime minister and dictator during the reign of King Alfonso XIII of Spain from 1923 until 1930.

In 1933, he founded Falange Española ("Spanish Phalanx"), a nationalist party inspired by the Fascist ideology. In 1934 his party merged with Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista, forming the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista under his leadership. In the general election in 1936, Falange won only 0.7% of the votes, but in the unstable political situation that emerged after the victory of the Popular Front (a coalition of various left-wing political organisations such as communists and socialists with liberal republicans like the Radicals), the party grew rapidly and by July of 1936 it had more than 40,000 members.

Falangism was originally similar to Italian fascism in certain respects. It shared its contempt for Bolshevism and other forms of socialism and its distaste for democracy. However, the Falange's National Syndicalism was a political theory very different from the fascist idea of corporatism, inspired by Integralism and the Action Française (for a French parallel, see Cercle Proudhon). It was first formulated in Spain by Ramiro Ledesma Ramos in a manifesto published in his periodical La Conquista del Estado on March 14, 1931. National Syndicalism attempted to bridge the gap between nationalism and the anarcho-syndicalist of the dominant trade union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), by revising Syndicalism altogether. While the Falange embraced the Catholic emphasis of Integralism it also borrowed elements from fascism.

Unlike other members of the Spanish right, the Falange was republican, avant-gardist and modernist, in a manner similar to the original spirit of Italian Fascism.

Primo de Rivera was supportive of the military uprising in July 1936 against the republican government after the murder of parliamentarian Calvo Sotelo by Republican Assault Guards. During the Spanish Civil War the Falange became the dominant political movement of the Spanish National-syndicalists (the right-wing umbrella opposition against Popular Front government of the Republic).

He was captured on the 6 July 1936, and held in captivity in Alicante until tried by the Popular Front government. Sentenced to death, he was executed on 20 November.

Relevance in Franco's regime

Francisco Franco's Spanish government formed a cult of personality around Primo de Rivera. After his arrest by Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War, his Falangist supporters called him "El Ausente," a Spanish expression meaning "the Absent One" to symbolize his importance as a leader of the Nationalist forces, despite his absence. After he had been executed in prison, he was called "martyr of the Crusade" (against Bolshevism) by his supporters. Despite this, his execution arguably spared Franco a strong political adversary for the post-war period, since Franco had had so far a rather low-profile career in the military, while Primo de Rivera was much more charismatic and with a higher degree of education. In this regard, Primo de Rivera was a germanophile with a strong and consistent Fascist ideology, which, amongst other aspects, was definitely anti-monarchic, while Franco was primarily an anti-communist with a definitely clerical stance and lacked any clear position regarding the monarchy.

During the Francoist régime, there was a plate on the outer wall of every parish, naming local soldiers and civilians killed by the republicans who died during the war (Caídos por Dios y por España, "Fallen for God and Spain"). Primo de Rivera's name was the first on every plate.

In that period of history, an often used political slogan of the Falange party and its various branches to commemorate the civil war was "Jose Antonio presente!", which could be translated "I, Jose Antonio, am present!" as well as "We are ready, Jose Antonio!"

Primo de Rivera's sister, Pilar Primo de Rivera, founded the Sección Femenina, the female branch of Falange. The Sección Femenina aimed to make the Spanish women conform to prevailing conservative Catholic social traditions at the time.

An upwards shot of the Valle de los Caídos.

Franco ordered the building of the Valle de los Caídos mausoleum, where Primo de Rivera's corpse lies now. On November 20, 1975, Franco died, and his corpse was buried beside Primo de Rivera's.

In 1981 the city of Madrid restored the original name of one of the city's major thoroughfares, the Gran Vía. The Franco regime had renamed it the Avenida José Antonio after taking power in 1939.

The 20th of November remains a symbolic date for the Spanish far-right because of the deaths of Primo de Rivera and Franco himself. The last statue left in Spain of Primo de Rivera was removed from Guadalajara in March 2005, after the Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero decided it was not suitable.

Bibliography

• Payne, Stanley G. (1961) Falange. A History of Spanish Fascism. Stanford University Press.
• Velarde Fuertes, Juan. "José Antonio y la economía" Grafite ediciones. ISBN 84-96281-10-8

External links

• Recent book by Ángel Luis Sánchez Marín
• Recent article about his thought in the context of the times.