Popular Action ( es, Acción Popular), until 1932 National Action ( es, Acción Nacional, links=no), was a Spanish

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

political party active during the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

. 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.Hugh Thomas, ''The Spanish Civil War'', Pelican Books, 1971, p. 95 It emanated from the ''Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas'' and effectively formed a political party drawn from this hard-line

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

movement. The main leader of Popular Action was editor of ''

El Debate ''El Debate'' is a defunct Spanish Catholic daily newspaper, published in Madrid between 1910 and 1936. It was the most important Catholic newspaper of its time in Spain. History and profile ''El Debate'' was founded in 1910 by Guillermo de Rivas ...

'' and future cardinal

Ángel Herrera Oria Ángel Herrera Oria (19 November 1886 – 28 July 1968) was a Spanish journalist and Roman Catholic politician and later a cardinal. He established the Instituto Social León XIII (later renamed Fundación Pablo VI) to promote the social doctr ...

.de Blaye, ''Franco'', p. 27 In 1932, National Action had to change its name, because parties and political movements were prohibited to use the word "national" in their names. The Popular Action sought to unite the right-wing, monarchist and Catholic camp and thus became the core of a conservative federation of parties, the

Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups The Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (, CEDA), was a Spanish political party in the Second Spanish Republic. A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Ángel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined itself in t ...

(CEDA), established in 1933. Even after the formation of CEDA the party's youth movement, ''Juventudes de Acción Popular'' (commonly known as the Greenshirts) continued to organise. However, in the spring of 1936, the decline of Popular Action was underlined when 15,000 Greenshirts left the movement to join FE de las JONS instead. On the eve of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

Popular Action had around 12,000 members. When

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

announced his decree establishing the '' Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista'' on 19 April 1937, Popular Action was one of a number of parties absorbed into this new pan-

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

group.Beevor, ''The Battle for Spain'', p. 285

References

{{Authority control Catholic political parties Monarchist parties in Spain Conservative parties in Spain