THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NEW SPANISH REPUBLICAN CABINET
Miravittles, Jaume
On the Threshold of Freedom: The Significance of the New Spanish Republican Cabinet By Jaume Miravittles Director. Spanish Information Office; former official in the Catalonian Government IN...
...When Dr...
...RESISTANCE MOVEMENT INSIDE SPAIN Meanwhile, an underground resistance organisation had been formed inside Spain railed the National Alliance of Democratic Forces, in which were represented all the republican political parties and labor organisations...
...and dually, the nomination of Llopis as Premier...
...In August 1915 the Spanish Cortes Convened in Mexico, and ratified the assumption of the Presidency of the Republic ad interim by Diego Martinez Barrio...
...The struggle against Franco, then, has mtered its final phase...
...the creation by the parliament of the JARE...
...former official in the Catalonian Government IN order to understand the significance of the Llopis Government in Exile formed in Pari* on February 9 after the resignation of the Giral Government, the.attitude of the Juan Negrin-Alvarez des Vayo group as manifested in the letter's article in The Nation for February 22, and the immediate prospects in Spanish politics, it is necessary to keep in mind the major developments that have occurred since the fall of Barcelona on January 26, lit...
...But actually the Negrinist groups in the United States continued, ••'in voce, their campaign against Giral as Premier...
...He dismissed a number of military leaders and replaced them with others who were willing to continue the futile fighting, France and Britain had already recognized the Franco regime, and Manuel A/.ana had therefore resigned the Presidency of the Republic on February 27, 1939...
...All these legal requirements were fulfilled in Mexico: Martinez Barrio had been elected President of the Cortes In Spain by a substantial majority of votes...
...NeWS of the formation of the Llopis Government has been received with grave concern In circles which support, the Franco regime, for they realize that it raises the possibility, for the first time, of a coalition against him of all the republican forces, including the Monarchists and prominent Army Generals...
...1940, • * • REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENTIN-EXILE ESTABLISHED TlIE resignation of Azana, who died in France in November 1940, and the liquidation of the Ncgrin Government by the Casado movement, left the Republican institutions without a head...
...Nevertheless, there remained in the Madrid sector a powerful army, estimated at nearly 500,000 men, who could hope to escape only through the ports of Valencia, Alicante, and Cartagena...
...Jose Giral to form a Government...
...In fact, as the result of a meeting held in Toulouse between President Marlines Barrio, Premier Llopis, and a delegation from the resistance movement inside Spain headed by Cipriano Mera, leader of the insurrection against Negrin ill March, 1939, a close relationship has been established between the Government-in-exile and the forces in the Interior...
...Communists throughout the world dubbed the comparable attitude of Ncgrin "heroic* In any case, the Spanish fighters who had for so long been giving the world an unequalled example of heroism, did not agree with this attitude, and a revolutionary movement broke out against Ncgrin...
...This belated movement did not produce the hoped-for results...
...Later the JARE became the Junta EspanoUi de Liberacion, and as such sent representatives to attend the United Nations conference at San Francisco, where it obtained certain positive results...
...Upon Giral's return to Paris, the two gnat labor organizations, the UGT and ('XT, which are the two groups most closely linked to the resistance forces, withdrew from the Giral Government, affirming that it was necessary to form a new irnvernment better able to interpret the political will of the National Alliance uf Democratic Forces and more likely to win the support of Britain and the United States, considered the key powers in the United Nations...
...Venezuela, Poland, Yugoslavia, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria, In anticipation of the approaching meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Giral was j;iveit n document on September 5, l'.Mii, »ppioved in Madrid by the resistance forces, granting him their support for the duration of the Assembly, but reserving to themselves the right to claim freedom of action thcroaftei if the decisions arrived at in Flushing Meadows did not fulfill the hopes of Dr...
...Later, due to the political pressure of the exiles, Negrin publicly declared that he supported the Giral (iovernment...
...Giral formed his Cabinet, in which were represented all the political parties and labor organizations of the Republican regime, the Negri n-del Vayo group refused to participate, even though Giral offered Negrin the Vice Presidency of the Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs...
...Further, the assumption of office by the latter must be ratified by a certain parliamentary quorum and on territory over which Spain has sovereignty...
...A Government was then formed under the premiership of Rodolfo Llopis, Secretary General of the Spanish Workers' Socialist Party...
...In other words, the five political di velopments of greatest significance in K« publican circles since the end of the civil war have all been unfavorable to the Nigrin-del Vayo group...
...At the sams time the only Republican Institution which still remained intact, the parliament (Cortes), created another refugee aid organization called the JARE...
...Mexico, Guatemala, Panama...
...A few hundred political leaders escaped, but the hulk of the central army was taken prisoner by Franco...
...Casado...
...Hia resignation was accepted by the President, who then asked Dr...
...In this Government are represented all the political parties and labor organizations which participated in the Giral Cabinet, but whereas the platform of Giral hindered close cooperation with the forces of the interior, the principal objective of the Llopis Govern* incut...
...The position of the resistance movement inside Spain was, indeed, very close to that embodied,-in the famous Tripartite Declaration signed hy France, Britain and the United States on March 4, 1946, in which it was ptoposed that a "caretaker government" should succeed Franco and prepare the ground for an election with the guarantee of full freedom...
...the establishment of the Junto E*iKinoln de Libel(iciim: the formation of the Giral Government...
...At the time it was said that Negrin's attitude resulted from the fact that he had thought his resignation would be accepted purely as a matter of form, and that lie would be named President of the new Council...
...and the Mexican Government granted the Spanish Republicans extraterritorial rights to the tone of the capital city where the proclamation of the President took place, surrounding it with troops while the ceremony was in progress...
...an article stating that secret contacts had been established between Martinez Barrio and Bevin for the purpose of arriving at a solution of the Spanish problem which del Vuyo termed "capitulatory...
...Politically it had the same organic structure as the Giral Government, but differences with regard to tactics soon made themselves apparent...
...with the blessing of Julian Bestelro, the most respected figure in the Spanish Socialist Party, and directed by Col...
...In fact, the Negrin-del Vayo group, especially del Vayo himself (Negrin has l>een much more discreet), attacked the Giral Government from the beginning, and del Vayo published in The Nation for July 6, 1946...
...In short, events in Spain and abroad are developing in a manner contrary to the expectation of the Negrin-del Vayo group, a/hich since 1939 has received five very serious and significant set-backs: the coup d'etat of Besteiro-Casado-Miaja Mere...
...Now that all the ii publican political parties and labor organizations (with the exception of the unall Negrin-del Vayo group) are working together, have established a clour telationship with the resistance forces of the interior, and are coordinating theb action with that of other anti-Franco groups, the circumstances indicated by the Tripartite Declaration and the recommendations of the United Nations «« necessary for the peaceful liquidation of the Franco regime are created, and Spain is on the threshold of democratic reconsti uction...
...Giral...
...is precisely the establishment of closer relations with these forces...
...THE BEGINNING OF THE END...
...According to the provisions of the Republican Constitution, if the President of the Republic dies, the President of the Cortes is his legal successor...
...Miaja, and I.t, Col...
...With the occupation of the Catalan capital, at that time the seat of the Spanish Government, by the international forces under Gen...
...Negrin, however, continued to regard himself as Chief of the Spanish Government, and his cabinet ministers as continuing to hold office At the beginning of 19U9 ha had created In France an organisation culled SERE to aid the Spanish refugees...
...The Constitutional position of dial received the support, in the form of diplomatic recognition, of ten countries...
...Since the war had been lost, the important task of the moment was to prevent the massacre of these heroic fighters ami devote every effort to their salvatian...
...Furthermore, there is talk of cooperation with other anti-Franco group* not associated with the Constitution of 1932...
...in reality, no such contacts were made...
...Giral...
...The Spanish Republican exiles were thus divided into two camps...
...The writer Perez Madrigal, who is one of the mouthpieces of the Franco regime, has written an article for one of the Madrid dailies cljarly revealing tbi« concern...
...When Hitler tried to do the same in Germajjy, his attitude was called "criminal...
...Franco, and with their arrival at the French frontier, the Spanish civil war had come to an end...
...Julian Besteiro remained in Madrid, and was condemned to life imprisonment, dying in jail on September 27...
...the meeting of the Cortes In Mexico was attended by the minimum number of deputies required for the quorum...
...Martincs Barrio accepted Negrin's resignation chiefly in order to facilitate matters, for with the resignation of the late President Azana and the creation by the parliament of the JARE in opposition to the SERE, Ncgrin had loat the two lac tors which were constitutionally required if he was to tMtinM to hold the Presidency of tin Council: the support of the President of |he Keptiblic, and the NsNUN of the pail lament...
...The decision finally taken by the United Nations General Assembly was considered by the forces of the interior as significant in so far as the struggle against Franco was concerned, but not as justifying support of the strictly constitutional position of Dr...
...Cipriano Mora, chief of the National Confederation of Labor divisions fighting on the central front...
...CASADO-BESTEIRO-MERA JlJAN NEGRIN, at that lime Premier of the Spanish Republican Government, proceeded to Madrid, and instead of concerning himself with the escape of these beleaguered forces, he affirmed that the war had not yet been lost...
...The President of the Republic having been proclaimed, Juan Ncgrin presented to him his resignation as President of the Council of Ministers (Premier...
...In these circumstances, continued military resistance was sheer lunacy...
...While Giral maintained that the question was one of a choice between Franco or the Republican Constitution of 1IKI2, lh« force* in thv interior, under the bmbum of event*, provtd much mm* llrvthle, unit mere willing to aeatjri eeMiiererem <>f ell political groups, whatever thin <n iqm or objective, as long an then shmul the common purpose of overthrowing tin Franco regime...
Vol. 30 • March 1947 • No. 11
