Editing CEDA (section)

==The polarization of political opinions and the CEDA==
The need for unity was the constant theme of the campaign fought by the CEDA and the election was presented as a confrontation of ideas, not of personalities. The electors' choice was simple: they voted for redemption or revolution and they voted for Christianity or Communism.  The fortunes of Republican Spain, according to one of its posters had been decided by 'immorality and anarchy'.  Catholics who continued to proclaim their republicanism were moved into the revolutionary camp and many speeches argued that the Catholic republican option had become totally illegitimate. 'A good Catholic may not vote for the Conservative Republican party' declared a ''Gaceta Regional'' editorial and the impression was given that Conservative Republicans, far from being Catholics, were in fact anti-religious.  In this all-round attack on the political centre, the mobilization of women also became a major electoral tactic of the Catholic right.  The ''Asociación Femenina de Educación'' had been formed in October 1931. As the 1933 general election approached women were warned that unless they voted correctly [[communism]] would come " which will tear your children from your arms, your parish church will be destroyed, the husband you love will flee from your side authorized by the divorce law, anarchy will come to the countryside, hunger and misery to your home."<ref>Gaceta Regional, 5 and 8 November 1933</ref>

AFEC orators and organisers urged women to vote 'For God and for Spain!' Mirroring the female qualities emphasized by AFEC the CEDA's self-styled ''sección de defensa'' brought young male activists to the fore.   In one incident in the last week of the campaign, in [[Guijuelo]] the efforts of a group of left wing sympathisers to prevent people entering the bullring, where [[José María Lamamié de Clairac y Colina|José María Lamamié de Clairac]] was speaking,  led to a running battle with CEDA's ''sección de defensa''.  Later stopped and searched they were found to be carrying a quantity of [[pizzle]] whips &ndash; ([[bullwhip]]s made from the dried penises of bulls) &ndash; taken along to 'fend off the violence which had been promised.' It was one example of the polarisation of political opinions which had occurred in the province of Salamanca, Robles's province, since the early days of the Republic. This new CEDA squad was also very much in evidence on election day itself, when its members patrolled the streets and polling stations in the provincial capital, supposedly to prevent the left from tampering with the [[ballot box]]es.<ref>Vincent p. 212.</ref>

In the 1933 elections, the CEDA won the most seats in the [[Cortes Generales|Cortes]] in no small part because the massive CNT membership abstained, holding true to their anarchist principles. The CEDA had won a plurality of seats; however, these were not enough to form a majority, but then President [[Niceto Alcalá-Zamora]] declined to invite the leader of the CEDA, Gil Robles, to form a government and instead invited the [[Radical Republican Party]]'s [[Alejandro Lerroux]] to do so.<ref>Preston (2006). p. 67.</ref> CEDA supported the [[Centrism|centrist]] government led by Lerroux; it later demanded and, on October 1, 1934, received three ministerial positions. They suspended most of the reforms of the previous [[Manuel Azaña]] government, provoking an armed miners' rebellion in [[Asturias]] on October 6, and an [[Catalan independentism|independentist]] rebellion in [[Catalonia]]&mdash;both rebellions were suppressed (the Asturias rebellion by young General [[Francisco Franco]]), being followed by mass political arrests and trials.  CEDA continued to mimic the German [[Nazi Party]], Robles staging a rally in March 1934, to shouts of "Jefe" ("Chief", after the Italian "Duce" used in support of Mussolini).<ref name="Thomas 1961. p. 100">Thomas (1961). p. 100.</ref><ref>Preston (2006). p. 72.</ref> Robles used anti-strike law to pick union leaders off one by one, and attempted to undermine the republican government of the [[Republican Left of Catalonia]], who attempted to continue the republic's previous reforms.<ref>Preston (2006). pp. 73&ndash;74.</ref> Using the title ''jefe'', the JAP created an intense and often disturbing cult around the figure of Gil Robles.

[[Stanley G. Payne|Stanley Payne]] argues that CEDA was neither fascist nor democratic. Payne argues that CEDA's goal was to win power through legal means and to then enact a constitutional revision that would protect property and religion and alter the basic political system. They would create neither a fascist state nor an absolute monarchy but a Catholic, [[Corporatism|corporative republic]]. While this would entail the limitation of direct democratic rights, it would not be a state in the style of Hitler or Mussolini's but probably closer to the neighbouring Portuguese ''[[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]]''.<ref>Payne, Stanley G. ''Fascism in Spain'', 1923–1977. University of Wisconsin Pres, 1999, p. 45</ref>

The ''[[Juventudes de Acción Popular]]'', the youth wing within the CEDA, "soon developed its own character. The JAP emphasized sporting and political activity. It had its own fortnightly paper, the first issue of which proclaimed: 'We want a new state.' The JAP's distaste for the principles of [[universal suffrage]] was such that internal decisions were never voted upon. As the thirteenth point of the JAP put it: "Anti-[[Parliamentary system|parliamentarianism]]. Anti-[[dictatorship]]. The people participating in Government in an organic manner, not by degenerate [[democracy]]."{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} The JAP held a series of rallies during the course of 1934.

On 26 September, the CEDA announced it would no longer support the RRP's minority government; it was replaced by a RRP cabinet, led by Lerroux once more, that included three members of the CEDA.<ref>Thomas (1961). p. 78.</ref>