Acción Española
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Through Ideology, Portugal and Authoritarianism
Formation
AE began life in December 1931 as a journal organised by doctrinaire monarchists. It was edited by Ramiro de Maeztu. Drawing in followers of the former Prime Minister Antonio Maura and the ultraconservative wings of Social Catholicism and Carlism, the group that developed around this journal promised to revive a strong Catholic monarchy. AE soon adopted an antisemitic discourse in imitation of similar movements in Europe. It soon built up contacts abroad, notably with Action Française, the Integralismo Lusitano and National Syndicalist movements in Portugal, and individual members of the National Fascist Party of Italy. The group's close links with Portuguese groups were driven by a strong belief in Hispanidad and a desire to see a return to the values of La Raza, which they felt had been abandoned in Spain. They also established a front political party, Renovación Española, in March 1933.
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Development
The group committed itself to a new Catholic monarchy based on the principle of instauración or installation, where the new monarchy would be strongly authoritarian and corporatist in nature. It has been argued that the ideas of AE, rather than the Falange, had the strongest influence on Francisco Franco, as his eventual state featured a corporatist Cortes, a reliance on the military and the continuation of existing elites as promoted by the AE.
AE attracted some leading figures in Spanish society, with members of the group including the poet José María Pemán, the militarist Jorge Vigón Suero-Díaz and the film-maker Ernesto Giménez Caballero.
Members of AE set up a 'conspiratorial committee' in late 1932, meeting at the regularly at the Biarritz home of Juan Antonio Ansaldo to plan a restoration coup. A substantial amount of money was spent stockpiling arms, whilst Lieutenant-Colonel Valentín Galarza Morante was given responsibility for building up subversive cells in the army. However, despite continuous plotting, no coup was ever launched by the group. The organization's co-founder, the famed political theorist Ramiro de Maeztu was summarily executed by a Republican death squad in the early days of the Spanish Civil War.
The cultural association was shut down since 6 August 1932 until 3 May 1934.
José María Pemán, Víctor Pradera, Carlos Ruiz del Castillo, Pedro Sainz Rodríguez, Ramiro de Maeztu, the marquis of Lozoya, José Calvo Sotelo, José Ibáñez Martín, Agustín González de Amezúa, Juan Antonio Ansaldo, the marquis of Quintanar, Manuel Pombo Polanco, Eugenio Vegas Latapié and the marquis of la Eliseda were among the members of its late (following the 1934 reopening of the cultural association) executive board.
In Francoist Spain
Because the AE was not a political party, it was not absorbed into the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista, although it was closely associated with that movement and AE members held leading positions within the group. A conflict broke out in April 1938 when leading AE member Eugenio Vegas Latapié was deprived of his seat on the FET y de las JONS National Council, leading to less co-operation between the AE and the Francoist State. Vegas Latapié and Ansaldo were involved in plotting against Franco around 1940 and 1941, although the AE as a group was not involved.