Republican Liberal Right

The Republican liberal right was created by the famous politician Niseto Alcalá Zamora i Torres , a former monarchist and prominent figure in the dynastic Liberal Party . Soon he was joined by a group of conservative Republicans led by Miguel Maura from another dynastic party - the Liberal Conservative , the son of Antonio Maura , who served five times as Prime Minister of Spain during the Bourbons . ^[1] On August 17, 1930, at the time of the deepest crisis of public confidence in the Spanish monarchy , Alcalá Zamora and Maura were among the signatories of the Pact in San Sebastian, whose members, the largest republican parties of Spain, formed the Republican Revolutionary Committee, which, according to historians became "the central event of the opposition of the monarchy of Alfonso XIII." ^[2] He headed the committee of Niseto Alcalá Zamora. ^[3] In 1931 , after the abdication of the king and the proclamation of a republic in Spain, the committee became the first provisional government of the Second Republic, ^[4] Like the committee, it was led by Alcalá Zamora.

In the first elections in the history of the Second Republic on June 28, 1931, right-wing liberals participated in the broad republican coalition of the Union of Republicans and Socialists, uniting organizations from center-right to Marxist . During the election campaign, the Republican Liberal Right positioned itself as a moderate Republican and Catholic party, addressing conservative voters, primarily right-wing and moderate monarchists. The party nominated 116 candidates throughout Spain, but could not achieve much success, largely due to poor organization of its campaign. ^[5] Right-wing liberals were able to win 25 seats, taking sixth place among all constituents . ^[6]

In August 1931, the party changed its name to the Progressive Republican Party ( Spanish: Partido Republicano Progresista, PRP ). During discussions on the new constitution, progressives, like the radicals of Alejandro Lerrus , generally supported the draft proposed by the Constitutional Commission, but, due to escalating disagreements with anti - clerical left republicans, left the republican-socialist coalition, after which in October Alcalá Zamora and Maura left the government. ^[7] Despite disagreements with the left, which at that time dominated Spanish politics, after the adoption of the republican constitution in December of the same 1931, Alcalá Zamora was elected the first president of the Republic . According to some historians, such a choice was determined by the desire to attract moderate right-wing Catholics and monarchists to the side of the young republic. ^{[8] [9]}

In January 1932, a split occurred in the party. The right wing, led by Miguel Maura, numbering 13 deputies, left the Progressive Republican Party and founded the Conservative Republican Party ( Spanish Partido Republicano Conservador, PRC ). ^[ten]

The 1933 elections were for the progressives, who took part in them as part of a coalition of radicals and centrists, unsuccessful. The party managed to hold only 3 deputies in parliament. The next election , 1936 , to which the progressives allied with the Republican National-Centrist Party, although they allowed the Progressive Republican Party to expand its representation in parliament twice, essentially consolidated its status as a low-power political force.

The party ceased to exist at the start of the Spanish Civil War .

• Santos Juliá Díaz. La Constitución de 1931 .-- Iustel (Madrid), 2009 .-- 519 p. ISBN 978-84-9890-083-5 (Spanish)
• Stanley G. Payne. Spain's first democracy: the Second Republic, 1931-1936. - University of Wisconsin Press, 1993 .-- 477 p. (English) ISBN 978-0-299-13674-1
• Julio Gil Pecharromán. La Segunda República (1931-1936). - Biblioteca Nueva (Madrid), 2006 .-- 352 p. (Spanish) ISBN 84-9742-536-7
• Stanley G. Payne. La primera democracia española: la Segunda República, 1931-1936. - Ed. Paidós Ibérica, 1995 .-- 464 p. (Spanish) ISBN 978-84-4930-128-5
• Julián Casanova. República y Guerra Civil. Vol. 8 de la Historia de España, dirigida por Josep Fontana y Ramón Villares. - Crítica / Marcial Pons (Barcelona), 2007 .-- 544 p. (Spanish) ISBN 978-84-8432-878-0
• Nigel Townson La República que no pudo ser. La política de centro en España (1931-1936). - Taurus (Madrid), 2002 .-- 536 p. (Spanish) ISBN 978-84-3060-487-6
• Juan Avilés Farré, María Dolores Elizalde Pérez-Grueso, Susana Sueiro Seoane. Historia política de España: 1875-1939. - ISTMO, 2002 .-- 472 s. (Spanish) ISBN 978-84-7090-320-5