Agrarian minority

• • opposition was led by Agrarian Minority - a small r/w deputies within the cortes
  • opposed all church reforms - particularly Article 26 and 44
• • failed to prevent the anti-clerical aspects of constitution becoming law
• • withdrew from the cortes and started a campaign to change the constitution
• • Agrarian Minority and Gil-Robles (leader of CEDA), succeeded in whipping up a vigorous press campaign against the new constitution
  • r/w papers presented the anti-clerical views as 'satanic', claiming that the new gov was controlled by freemasons, nun-haters and violent animals who belonged in a zoo rather than government.
• • Gil-Robles argued for a position known as 'accidentalism'
  • claimed he did not oppose the abolition of the monarchy and the founding of the republic. - he argued the key issue was the nature of the constitution
  • the constitution should reflect the traditional principles on which spain was based: love of the church and respect for the army
  • campaigned for constitutional reform, not to bring back the king but to bring back the constitution into what he claimed were traditional values