72. Alcalá Zamora's Ministry (1925-1930)
The so-called "Padres de la Patria".
Front: Lerroux, Azaña, Alcalá Zamora, Besteiro and Albornoz
Back: Prieto, Domingo, Casares, de los Ríos, Nicolau, an unindentified clerk, Giralt and Martínez Barrios.
72. Alcalá Zamora's Ministry (1925-1930)
In his first speech as Prime Minister, Alcalá Zamora mentioned that it was time for “a return to normality” after the war and the revolution. Among the first measures of his cabinet there was a small cut in tax rates and new business regulations designed to improve efficiency. Also, in the area of public affairs, the Alcalá-Zamora`s government is considered a pioneer of public relations in Spain, as in this period there were the first regular meetings of the ministers with the press, albeit it did not result was expected as the experience was cut short by late 1926, even if it would be recovered by the next government. This period of Spanish history is remembered for the growth of its economy, stimulated by the end of the war and the recovery of international trade. Furthermore, the return to peace seemed to give new hopes and ideas that were applied to the Spanish industry and medicine, along with foreign technological improvements. It was around this year when radio and cinema began to arrive to the Spanish big cities, that grew and prospered as electrification spread quickly from Barcelona to Madrid, and from Bilbao to Sevilla, even if this new improvement was limited to the cities and some towns.
As the global economy returned to its pre-war levels, the Spanish economy began to benefit from the repayments of the loans given to France during the war, which helped to heal to a certain degree the diplomatic relations with the northern neighbour, hit hard after the coronation of king Federico. Furthermore, the fast recovery of the Spanish economy was greatly invigorated by British credit pouring into the country to further reinforce its economic growth. Chamberlain's government was determined to avoid Spain falling into Communism and to help to turn it into a fortress against the Bolshevik Italian Republic. After all, and with the isolationist policies followed by the United States, which nevertheless grew to become the world’s leading industrial power in the next decades, the British Empire remained the largest economy in the world and her industries were still to dominate the world and notable advances were made in the new industries of automobiles and aeronautics.
Once concern of the Spanish government was to find an alternative to coal as a source of energy. This was a hard lesson taught by the war and the blockade. For the moment, oil was to be the main alternative, even that meant depending either form the United States or the British-friendly Persian Gulf. In response to this, in 1926 the Instituto Geológico de España (the Spanish Geological Survey), that could trace its origins back to 1849 even if its present from was from 1910, began to investigate the possibility of domestic oil fields in Spanish territories. However, in spite of the best efforts of the Spanish technicians, success seemed to be actively avoiding them and it would take almost two decades to find any positive result in this field, as we shall see (1).
Then, the government introduced a series of bills that removed restrictions on abortion in 1927. However, a similar attempt to clarify the situation of the homosexuals (homosexuality had been removed from the criminal code in 1848 -2- but it could and was persecuted using other laws, mainly those related with disturbances of the public order or offenses against honour and morals) and to ennact a divorce law, it found a vicious opposition campaign mounted by the Catholic Church, which cut short all the attempts to solve the issues until the government would be able to break the resistance and to legalize the homosexual relations (but for the army) between men in 1930 and lay the foundations for what it would be the Divorce Bill of 1931.
This two laws would become the battlefield where Liberal and Socialists deputies fought bitterley during Alcalá-Zamora's tenure. Besteiro's attack would increase with the prime minister's hesitant ways aobut the divorce law and led to vicious attacks against him in the Cortes. Furthermore, as Alcalá-Zamora's position upon not only the divorce law but also on the homosexuality question was quite confusing, many in his party began to ponder about the way to remove him not only from the leadership of the Liberal formation but also from the goverment, as those critics felt that he was taking a Fabian policy not only in those two topics but also in all the government matters. Thus, from 1928 onwards, Alcalá-Zamora was attacked by the PSOE and by the Liberal rank and file, specially by the faction led by Manuel Azaña. This was something that Alcalá-Zamora would never forget nor forgive. However, his machiavellian (and failed) ways would in the end turn the party against him so, when he called for elections (to be held on May 30, 1930), he was forced from resign as leader of the Liberal Party and replaced by Azaña.
(1) Just a bit of info: I'm going to advance the discovery of gas in Spain, thanks to the butterflies introduced along the TL.
(2) It was reintroduced again IOTL 1928.
