SPAIN: Azaña Up

Spain’s flamboyant oversupply of politicians had by last week brought that country to the edge of political chaos. The impassive, wrinkled face of Premier Manuel Azaña, Left Republican, was grooved with woe over the treacherous rioting of his ostensible allies among Communists and Socialists. Last week this reached a new high with the burning of five Madrid churches, seven convents, four schools.

Up for election was a second President of the Second Spanish Republic to replace kindly old Niceto Alcalá (“Father of the Republic”) Zamora, brutally booted out of office last month by the Cortes. The new President was to be picked by the Parliamentary Deputies and an equal number of specially elected delegates sitting to gether in Madrid. Above partisan politics, he would have considerably more prestige and less power than the Premier. Unexpectedly, Premier Azaña let it be known that he would accept the Presidency.

On a hot day last week the electors met in Madrid’s El Retire Park under the scorching glass roof of the Crystal Palace. With 30 Monarchists abstaining and 115 Catholics casting blank ballots, they overwhelmingly elected Manuel Azaña President on the first vote.

President Azaña at 56 is rated Spain’s shrewdest, most honest and most popular politician. Four-time Premier, onetime newspaperman, he stands solidly for the Republic, squarely between Communists and Fascists. His opinion of Communism in Spain: “Impossible.”