Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-02-23
SPECTER Of SOVIET
STALKS IN SPAIN
Election Followed by Tur-
MOL Turning Rightist "vic-
tory" Into Defeat.
BY CARLOS J. vIDELA,


tory" Into Defeat.
BY CARLOS J. vIDELA,
Latin America Editor, North American
Newspaper Alliance.
MADRID, February % (N.A.N.A).
One of the most extraordinary up
sets in the annals of European poll
tics has delivered the government Of
Spain to the Left, has completely dis
rupted the so recently rock solid
Right, has again sunk the country
into turmoil and has brought to the
fore the question: Is Spain headed
for a Soviet form of government?
The first news Of the Spanish elec-
tions told of the triumph Of the Right
lists, which had been expected con-
f1dently. And next day, as more and
more returns were tabulated, the to-
tally unexpected was reported-there
was no victory of the Right; the Right
was beaten, crushed and showed aside,
and Manuel Azana, the man who had
been accused of melting the bloody
upriSings of ASturias and Catalonia,
was once more in the saddle, backed
by what seems to be an absolute ma
Jority in Parliament.
One week before the elections the
stage was set for Rightist landslide.
AS far back as the electoral census
OF 1888 (before the extremist upris-
ing of Asturias and Catalonia), the
Rightist bloc had 100000 votes
throughout Spain, while the Leftist
groups commanded only 100000
Then came the Leftist revolution,
which failed. When the reaction set
In in Asturias and Catalonia, thou
sands of Leftist voters who disagreed
with the Communist program of the
radical leader, Francisco Largo Cabal-
lero, and thousands of lower middle
class sympathizers turned to the Right.
Added to the previous majority. this
pointed to Walkover for the Right
In the elections of February Is.
Disorders Follow Blunders.
Jose Maria Gil Robes position at
the head of the Catholic Union &C. E.
D. A. seemed impregnable. but then
the political blunders started piling
up. The Catholic Union, which looked
to the papal nuncio for its policies,
allied itself with former Premier Al
ejandro Lerroux's Radical party (Cen-
teri, after Lerroux's rule had been
thoroughly discredited by series of
scandals The first of these concerned
the bribing of several government
officials and relatives of members of
the cabinet by one, Strauss, who want
en- protection" for roulette game
known as "straperlo." Hardly had
this formidable scandal subsidized when
retired army officer came forward
and accused other officials on bribery
charges.
AS If that were not enough, the Gil
Robes party contracted new alliance
with the followers of the then
Premier Manuel Portela Valladares,
who was cordially detested by the Left
for not being with them, and by the
Right for not having handed over the
government to Gil Robles when the
latter was the logical leader of the
moment.
But there was still more to come.
Gil Robes consented to join forces
with Miguel Maura, hated by the
Catholics for his alleged Indictment
to church burning and priest-baiting
in May, 1881, when hoodlun1s attacked
nuns and destroyed priceless works of
sacred art.
This series of blunders came in the
process of forming a Rightist bloc, in
answer to the welding of all Leftists,
including Socialists, Communists and
Anarchist yndicalists. The melting
of the Right groups into single unit
was done in many-hued pot and the
result was a Frankenstein monster
that killed its maker.
Revolt Against Leader.
A large section of the Radical Re-
publican party ("radical' in Spanish
hasn't the English connotation of ex-
tremism) revolted against its leader,
Lerroux, and, as protest against him
and against Maura, voted for the Left.
Women, who turned out en- rnaSse in
1888 for the Right, were discouraged
from voting by the sight of Gil Robes
arm-in-arm with Miguel Maura and
stayed away from the polls in droves.
Don Juan de Ia Cierva (the name
Is familiar to Americans in connection
with the autogiro), who is Monar-
chist and was minister of agriculture
in the last royal cabinet, took walk"
from the Right when he learned that
prafaiap pnrfa1o al 10 Il
Maura had entered the Rightist camp.
And that meant lot to the Right, for
Don Juan is highly regarded in his
district of Murcia, where many work.
ers are his friends. Murcia was lost
to the Right.
Seville, considered Rightist strong
hold, also was lost. The presence of
Maura and Portela on the ticket cost
the Right the election.
While the Right was thus split and
disintegrated, the Left, with many
votes from discontinued Rightists.
forged ahead. The Anarchist-Syndi-
calists, who do not believe In ballots
but in direct action" broke all
precedents and came to the polls in
great numbers. The Leftist victory
was thus assured.
Azana in Difficulty.
And Manuel Azana is now at the
helnn-and in stew. Azana, a bril-
liant man of letters, whose honesty
nobody questions, is not the red bogy
pictured by some extreme Rightists.
He Is really bourgeois Republican,
OF slightly radical tinge, who allied
himself with the Socialists to fight
Lerroux and fell into the hands of
the Left. He is now prisoner of
the Socialists and to some extent of
the Center, while his strange bed
fellow, Largo Caballero, shouts
"Soviet" and calls him "Kerensky."
What the future has in store for
distracted Spain is hard to foresee.