The
Cortes was the Spanish Parliament. In
the 1933 elections, CEDA won the most
seats in the Cortes.
President Niceto
Alcalá Zamora refused
to ask its leader, José Maria Gil Robles,
to form a government. However, seven members of the CEDA served as
ministers during the next three years.
In the elections of February
1936, 34.3 per cent of the vote went to the Popular
Front, 33.2 per cent to the conservative parties and the rest
to regional and centre parties. This gave the Popular Front 271 seats
out of the 448 in the Cortes and
Manuel
Azaña
was asked to form a new government.
The new government immediately
upset the conservatives by realizing all left-wing political prisoners.
The government also introduced agrarian reforms that penalized the
landed aristocracy. Other measures included transferring right-wing
military leaders such as Francisco
Franco to posts
outside Spain, outlawing the Falange Española
and granting Catalonia political and administrative autonomy.
On
the 10th May 1936 the conservative Niceto
Alcala Zamora was
ousted as president and replaced by the left-wing Manuel
Azaña.
Soon afterwards Spanish Army officers, including Emilio
Mola,
Francisco
Franco and José
Sanjurjo,
began plotting to overthrow the Popular Front
government. This resulted in the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War on 17th July, 1936.
It is estimated that during
the first few months of the war, 28 members of the Cortes were killed
in the Republican zone, whereas 59 were murdered in the Nationalist
zone.
When the government left
Madrid in November 1936, the Cortes was moved to Valencia. However,
after Juan Negrin
became prime minister
in May 1937, he announced that his government would rule by decree.
The Cortes now only met at six monthly periods to discuss government
selected topics.
When Negrin and his government
fled to France the Cortes met in Paris. The
final session of the Cortes of the Republic was held on 31st March,
1939.
After the war General Francisco
Franco established
a carefully controlled Cortes which acted on legislation drafted by
his ministers
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