Víctor's paternal family originated from France; his grandfather, Juan Pradera Martinena, lived in the Basque town of Sare (Labourd province),[1] but moved across the Pyrenees and settled in Endara de Etxalar.[2] Víctor's father, Francisco Pradera Leiza, was an indiano. As a youngster he emigrated to America and spent 16 years in Cuba;[3] enriched, he returned to Navarre[4] and married a pamplonesa,[5] Filomena Larumbe,[6] descendant to a petty bourgeoisie family. Her father, Ángel Larumbe Iturralde,[7] sided with the legitimists during the First Carlist War and narrowly escaped execution, later to settle in Vera de Bidasoa and to practise as a notary.[8] Juan Víctor was born[9] as the first of four sons, Juan Víctor, Luis, Juan[10] and Germán. In 1879 he moved with the family to San Sebastián following the professional lot of his father, who ran a commercial construction business.[11]
Having obtained bachillerato in Instituto de San Sebastián[12] in 1887[13] he spent a year in Bordeaux and then another one in Bilbao, studying at the JesuitDeusto college and preparing for engineer studies.[14] Having moved to Madrid Pradera entered Escuela de Ingenieros,[15] exact year of his graduation is unknown. He returned to Gipuzkoa in 1897[16] and settled in Tolosa, engaged in the paper mill business of his father.[17] Reportedly successful as a manager, Pradera later amalgamated the family enterprise into the Papelera Española trust of Rafael Picavea and became a shareholder of this company,[18] involved in its activities until the early 20th century.[19]
At the turn of the century he commenced studying law as an unenrolled student in Madrid,[20] which he continued for 2 years.[21] Having graduated, in San Sebastián he opened the law chancery and practiced as Inspector General in Cuerpo de Ingenieros de Canales y Puertos simultaneously.[22] At unspecified date he obtained PhD in law in Madrid.[23] In 1899[24] Pradera married a donostiarra, María Ortega,[25] with whom he had 4 children, Javier to become a prominent Francoist politician.[26] Víctor's grandson, Javier Pradera, made his name as a well-known anti-Francoist journalist and publisher, dubbed watchman of the Spanish transition to democracy.[27]
During his academic years, Pradera was active in various Catholic organizations and developed interest in politics. Raised in a liberal ambience and – apart from his maternal grandfather – with no family antecedents, in the 1890s he neared Carlism as a result of his lectures; unlike most Traditionalists who inherited their outlook from forefathers, Pradera considered himself a “scientific Carlist”.[28] Already recognized as an orator, in 1899[29] he was agreed to stand as an unofficial[30] Carlist candidate in Tolosa. Benefitting from just commencing rapprochement between mainstream Carlists and the Integrists, he was elected defeating a governmental candidate;[31]Matias Barrio appointed him speaker of the small Carlist minority.[32]
In the aftermath of 1898 disaster Pradera formed the first wave of regeneracionistas, demanding profound if not revolutionary change.[33] A young newcomer in the chamber, he regularly clashed with Silvela,[34] demonstrating logic combined with oratory skills[35] as well as hot temper.[36] Re-elected in 1901,[37] he went on confronting the old liberal enemies and took on the new ones, especially republican radicals and nationalists.[38] He intended to run for re-election in the subsequent campaign of 1903, but eventually resigned due to financial issues.[39] In 1904 Pradera was elected from Tolosa to Diputación Provincial.[40] Together with Esteban de Bilbao Eguía and Julio Urquijo he formed a new generation of activists, promoted by the claimant Carlos VII and the party leader marqués de Cerralbo in their bid to build a modern Carlist network.[41]
His deputy duties terminated, Pradera dedicated himself to family life, business[42] and intellectual work.[43] He remained engaged in party life, though his relations with local leadership deteriorated. In course of the 1910 electoral campaign he sought rapprochement with the mauristas and supported a stand-alone candidate;[44] both were expelled from the party by its Gipuzkoan jefe, Tirso de Olazábal.[45] Re-admitted in 1912,[46] Pradera continued his career as an orator on public meetings.[47] Addressing a wide range of issues, he was increasingly focused on confronting the emerging Basque national aspirations.[48] As he gained a nationwide expert recognition, in 1917 de Romanones called him into extra-parliamentarian committee to discuss Catalan autonomy.[49] Elected to the Cortes in 1918,[50] he became the key Carlist speaker.[51] Forging friendship with Antonio Maura, he nevertheless opposed grand but hazy coalitions aimed at preserving shaky stability of the late Restoration. Aware of the forthcoming revolutionary tide,[52] he advocated a radical Traditionalist change.[53]
At that time Jaimismo was increasingly paralysed by a multidimensional conflict between its key ideologue, Juan Vázquez de Mella, and the claimant himself. Pradera, who befriended de Mella and remained heavily influenced by his vision, sided with the rebels,[54] in 1919 joining their Partido Católico Tradicionalista.[55] Animating the MellistDiario de Navarra,[56] he unsuccessfully ran for the Cortes in 1919,[57] failing also in his 1920 bid for the Senate.[58] During final years of Restauración he was in vain lured by both partidos turnistas, offering him safe place on electoral lists and ministerial jobs;[59] Pradera remained the PCT party jefe in Gipzukoa.[60]
In the early 1920s Pradera's relations with de Mella deteriorated. According to one theory, Mella favored a loose federation of extreme Right parties, while Pradera opted for a new party of the Right. According to another, Mella perceived Pradera's vision as minimalist, suspecting him of hidden secularism and embracing parliamentarianism.[61] Most detailed study available pursues the theory of orthodox de Mella disdainful to "possibilist" and "minimalist" Pradera.[62] One more theory claims that the two clashed later and the point of contention was policy towards the Primo de Rivera dictatorship.[63] Pradera decided to go his own way, taking a number of mellistas with him;[64] de Mella himself, plagued by health problems and with both his legs amputated,[65] gradually retired into private and intellectual life.[66]
Pradera speaking
In 1922 Pradera set up Partido Social Popular,[67] intended to be a vehicle of a new, possibilist policy making.[68] Incompatible with the Carlist intransigence,[69] it was envisioned as a broad alliance rather than a party.[70] Most scholars suggest it was principally inspired by social theories of Leo XIII,[71] at that time advanced in Spain mostly by the Zaragoza school of Salvador Minguijon;[72] it was supposed to confront the rising socialist tide.[73] Though the party is occasionally described as a distant preconfiguration of Christian Democracy,[74] proto-Fascism or renewed Traditionalism,[75] most summarise its program as social-Catholicism,[76] modeled on the German Catholic Centre Party.[77] The party slogan was: Religión, Patria, Estado, Propiedad y Familia.[78] PSP opposed representation based on popular election system and advocated a corporative representation instead;[79] Pradera appreciated good will of Christian-democrats like Herrera Oria, but claimed that their malmenorismo opens the door to revolution, he also preferred monarchism to Christian-democratic accidentalism.[80] The PSP social program included progressive taxation and social legislation.[81] Though some of its leaders clearly excluded ruling by force, Pradera remained rather ambiguous on this issue.[82]
Most “pesepistas” welcomed Primo de Rivera dictatorship;[83] Pradera greeted him enthusiastically[84] as a long overdue regeneracionismo. Asked by Primo for an interview,[85] Pradera suggested that the new regime should ban all parties,[86] introduce corporative representation, build a presidentialist government and construct a regionalist state,[87] a vision developed further on in 4 memoranda, supplied to the dictator.[88] Pradera engaged in advocating dictatorship in the press[89] and remained officially Primo's assessor until 1927,[90] when he entered Asamblea Nacional. Member of the Proyectos de Leyes Constitucionales section,[91] he strived to institutionalize the system by working on a new constitution, conceived in line with his corporativist vision.[92]
Pradera's intellectual contribution to Primo's rule was so eminent that he is sometimes considered a point of reference for primoderiverismo.[93] However, his relations with the dictator deteriorated, the first controversies surfacing in 1924.[94] Pradera was disturbed by the perceived self-adulation of Primo, preserving liberal features of the ancient regime, and generally inertia prevailing over a decisive change.[95] He considered Union Patriotica a mistake,[96] opposed centralization and did not agree with Calvo Sotelo on financial policy, the fiscal system in particular.[97] Though in the late 1920s Primo was increasingly irritated by Pradera's criticism, the latter remained supportive until the very end.[98] It was only long after the regime's fall that Pradera started to view it as a delusive spell of stability between bewilderment of the late Restauración and chaos of the Republic.[99]
Carlist standard
During the first republican electoral campaign of 1931 Pradera was supposed to join lista católico-fuerista, but eventually he refused to form ranks with the despised Basque nationalists and withdrew.[100] He drew close to the Jaimistas,[101] but remained hesitant about returning to their party.[102] It was only after the death of Don Jaime that in 1932 Pradera decided to lead his followers and the orphaned mellistas[103] to the united Carlist organization, Comunión Tradicionalista,[104] entering its executive.[105] He also became head of the newly established Council of Culture,[106] rising into a formally acknowledged movement's intellectual leader. His career of a public servant was crowned in 1933, when he was elected[107] to Tribunal de Garantías Constitucionales de España.[108] In 1934 he unsuccessfully run for its presidency.[109] In 1936 Pradera was admitted to Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación.[110]
Pradera did not display a dynastical zeal; as the new claimant was an octogenarian with no issue, he considered recognising Don Juan as Carlist king.[111] Within Comunión Pradera formed an influential minority endorsing a broad monarchical alliance with the Alfonsists. He wholeheartedly engaged in Acción Española[112] and became vice-president of Sociedad Cultural Española, the official owner of Acción Española periodical.[113] He then proved one of key Carlists joining Bloque Nacional,[114] entering its executive committee and working out its manifesto, most likely a compromise between himself and Calvo Sotelo.[115] Pradera continued confronting accidentalist Christian-democracy; his campaign against CEDA was so virulent that Carlist leaders felt pressed to call for moderation.[116]
Initially, Pradera's drive towards a monarchist alliance was shared by the party leaders; it was rather the rank-and-file who saw no purpose mixing with debris of the hated liberal dynasty.[117] When Alfonso Carlos replaced Tomás Domínguez Arévalo with the intransigent Manuel Fal, Pradera and the entire Junta[which?] resigned.[118] Though Fal permitted Rodezno and Pradera to pursue their tactics on a private business basis, none of them was a match for the personality of Calvo Sotelo. As the growing feeling was that Alfonsinos were gaining the upper hand in Bloque Nacional, Fal decided to withdraw and Pradera hesitantly complied; he focused on fighting secularization, democracy, socialism, nationalism and all perceived evils of the republic as an author, publishing press articles and books.[119]
Pradera's political vision was taking shape in course of some 40 years, to be finally integrated in El Estado Nuevo, the book published in 1935.[120] His theory is usually viewed as anchored in works of Vázquez de Mella, considered by Pradera the intellectual master. Other sources of inspiration listed are papal encyclicals, Maurras, Donoso Cortes and, last but not least, Thomas Aquinas.[121]
According to Pradera, rights of a man exist only when combined with his duties towards God[122] and are unacceptable as deified Rousseau's “human rights”.[123] It is natural that men form different entities (e.g. families, guilds, regions etc.), which interact with one another.[124] They are topped by a nation, which is an organically constituted society of societies.[125] A nation is best expressed as a monarchy, its unity ensured by King and Church.[126] Royal powers are limited by principles of divine order and by sovereignty of the nation's components.[127] A democratic individualist representation can not express this sovereignty, which is to be voiced by an organic representation.[128] Since parties tear every society apart, the Cortes should be composed of representatives of 6 main classes,[129] plus delegates of various state bodies.[130] The law is defined by the king, with auxiliary role of the Cortes and the council. The state is a fairly withdrawn structure;[131] its principal responsibilities defined as safeguarding the country, ensuring internal order and executing justice.[132] Catholic principles provide the logic,[133] and the corporativist state provides the machinery to solve social problems and implement mechanisms regulating distribution of wealth.[134] How this vision was to be achieved remained unclear.[135]
El Estado Nuevo was enthusiastically accepted among Carlists,[136] Pradera replacing de Mella as their top theorist.[137] Also other sections of the Spanish Right, deprived of a comparable credo, viewed the work with respect if not envy.[138] Pradera's impact on Franco remains disputed. In the newspaper version he appears as "one of the icons and pilars of Francoism".[139] Indeed, many scholars consider Pradera one of caudillo's masters,[140] pointing to his prologue to the 1945 re-edition[141] and later references;[142] to them, Estado Nuevo is a forerunner of Francoist state and its clear theoretical lecture.[143] Though some in-depth studies on Francoism even claim that the regime was related to Traditionalism rather than to fascism,[144][145]
The regionalist question posed an indispensable component of Pradera's theory; it also kept coming back as a major thread of his political activities. Today among many Spanish citizens – especially the Basques[156] – Pradera is principally recognized only for his stance on this very topic,[157] usually as a sworn enemy of national minorities.[158]
From the onset of his career Pradera declared himself a supporter of traditional regionalism fueros,[159] and identified himself as unswervingly regionalist.[160] In his political vision the regions,[161] with their specific legal, economic and social establishments, were among key entities forming a nation, and his recommendations to Primo endorsed a strongly regionalist state. The fueros, however, did not provide an autonomous legal framework,[162] but to the contrary, they were viewed as a pact between a region and the Spanish state.[163] Hence, he consistently fought all designs perceived as fostering separatism[164] and embracing autonomy,[165] confronting Liga Autonomista,[166] lambasting Wilsonian arguments on self-determination, fighting theories advanced by Sabino Arana and Arturo Campión,[167] thwarting autonomy projects of late Restauración,[168] publicly admonishing Primo de Rivera for fostering separatism,[169] fighting Vasco-Navarrese autonomy drafts during the Republic[170] - with particular hostility to incorporating Navarre into the autonomous project[171] - and voting against the Catalan Leases Act in Tribunal de Garantias.[172]
Traditionalism: Euskalerria
Pradera denied the Basques and the Catalans a separate political identity, be it historical[173] or contemporary, and was particularly infuriated by racist thread of the Basque national discourse.[174] Recognising their separate ethnic status, he considered the minorities "pueblos",[175] forming part of the Spanish political nation.[176] He remained restless denouncing what he considered invented nationalist myths[177] and proving that the Basques had neither formed a unitarian cultural entity nor had ever possessed a common political self.[178] As confronting Basque and Catalan political aspirations became a major thread of Pradera's activity, driven by concern for unity of Spain, he soon grew into the nationalist Basques' primary foe, accused of españolismo, hyperpatriotism and jingoism.[179]
Pradera's contribution to anti-Republican coup consisted chiefly of conducting talks with the would-be Alfonsist allies in Navarre and in the Basque provinces, though exact scale of his engagement remains unknown.[180] In February 1936 he declined Franco's proposal to join him on Canary Islands;[181] fully aware of the forthcoming coup and anxious not to be called a coward, he cancelled a formal visit to France, scheduled on July 13 as part of Tribunal de Garantias duties, and remained in San Sebastián.[182] He was also anxious not to leave his daughter, who at the time was pregnant and due in short time.[183] He is quoted as declaring to Rodezno on July 16, 1936: "Thomas, let God help us. If we fail, we will have our throats cut".[184]
During the initial days of the insurgency, Pradera remained in San Sebastián, where the coup indeed failed; he soon found himself cut off from the nationalist zone. Early August[185] he was arrested by the Basque militia[186] and detained in the Ondarreta prison; his son Javier joined him soon afterwards.[187] Accounts of his last days differ. Most studies claim he was trialed by a makeshift Tribunal Popular and was sentenced to death;[188] other works suggest that as the city was already under the nationalist siege, the Republican militia units stormed the prison fearing the detainees might be soon set free.[189] On September 6, within a group of other prisoners, Pradera was driven to the nearby Polloe cemetery and executed,[190] his son meeting the same fate shortly afterwards. In 1949 Franco posthumously conferred upon Pradera the title of conde de Pradera, which is functional until today.[191]
Guinea Suárez 1953, Orella Martínez 2000, p. 14, also Idioia Estornés Zubizarreta, Victor Pradera Larumbe entry at Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia, available here
Guinea Suárez 1953, Orella Martínez 2000, p. 14, LARUMBE ITURRALDE, Ángel entry at Gran Enciclopedia Navarra online available here[permanent dead link]
the first Pradera’s biography claimed he was born 1873, see Maximiliano García Venero, Víctor Pradera, guerrillero de la unidad, Madrid 1943, s. 17, and this information has been adopted by almost all other authors; the recent biography claims the correct date is 1872, see Orella Martínez 2000, p. 17, also his El origen del primer católicismo Español, [PhD thesis], Madrid 2012, p. 213
some sources claim he constructed houses, see Orella Martínez 2000, p. 15, some sources suggest he was running a commerce business related to construction, Francisco J. Carballo, Recordando a Víctor Pradera. Homenaje y crítica, [in:] Aportes 81 (2013), p. 99
some authors claim he gave up business in 1902, see Orella Martínez 2000, p. 17, though he was reported as engaged as late as 1904, see Madrid Científico 1904, p. 19, available here
Carballo 2013, p. 101; Rafael Castela Santos, La ejemplar muerte del diputado carlista Víctor Pradera en 1936, [in:] A casa de Sarto, 13.10.05, available here
Agustín Fernández Escudero, El marqués de Cerralbo (1845-1922): biografía politica [PhD thesis], Madrid 2012, p. 360; Pradera was sworn two weeks behind schedule, the usual practice employed by the Carlists, who declined to swear obedience to the Alfonsist monarchy, see Guinea Suárez 1953
a highly apologetic source claims that Pradera refused to engage in corruption practices, see Guinea Suárez 1953. Contemporary scholars suggest there was no corruption involved and he rather considered it immoral to finance his own campaign, see Carballo 2013, p. 101; ABC 04.09.86 claims he was defeated, see here
though it is not clear whether he served only one term or was re-elected, Estornés Zubizarreta, Victor Pradera Larumbe, see also Gestión de Las Diputaciones available here[permanent dead link]
José Luis Orella Martínez, El origen del primer catolicismo social español [PhD thesis at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia], Madrid 2012, p. 223
he owned shares of a number of San Sebastián companies, see Felix Luengo Teixidor, Crecimiento económico y cambio social. Guipuscoa 1917-1923, Bilbao 1990, ISBN9788460073741, p. 353, Ángel García-Sanz Marcotegui, Elites económicas y políticas en la Restauración, a diversidad de las derechas navarras [in:] Historia contemporánea 23 (2001), p. 602; apart from Papeleria Española the company identified was Cooperativa Eléctrica Donostiarra, see Juan Antonio Saez García, Infrastructuras de servicios urbanos, [in:] Geografia e historia de Donostia-San Sebastián, available here
José Joaquín Castañeda, son of Joaquín Castañeda y Otermín, see Juan Ramón de Andrés Martín, El cisma mellista. Historia de una ambición política, Madrid 2000, ISBN9788487863820, p. 54
Estornés Zubizarreta, Victor Pradera Larumbe. The background of this conflict remains unknown, though there are some suggestions in Luis M.a de Zavala y Fernández de Heredia (ed.), La sociedad vasca del siglo XIX en la correspondencia del Archivo de la Casa de Zavala, Lasarte 2008, ISBN9788496288706, p. 67: “Siendo tildado su mandato como personalista, en 1910 expulsó a Víctor Pradera del Partido por indisciplina”; Juan Ramón de Andrés Martín, Precendentes del proyecto ultraderechista mellista en el periodo 1900-1912, [in:] Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 202 (2005), p. 125 approaches this conflict as a pre-Mellist controversy; the press communique does not go into details, see El Imparcial 05.05.10, available here
Ana Calavia Urdaniz, «La Conciliación» de Pamplona y sus relaciones con los sindicatos católico-libres (1915-1923), [in:] Príncipe de Viana 49 (1988), p. 80
Orella Martínez 2012, p. 183, since Pradera was attracted to Carlism by its theory and not dynastical allegiance, the decision to abandon Don Jaime was not hard for him, see Carballo 2013, p. 99; the same author claims (p. 105) that Pradera joined de Mella sharing his anti-Entente views
its editor-in-chief was Raimundo García, Eduardo González Calleja, La prensa carlista y falangista durante la Segunda República y la Guerra Civil (1931-1937), [in:] El Argonauta español 9 (2012), p. 29, p. 4; Ignacio Olábarri Gortázar, Notas sobre la implantación, la estructura organizativa y el ideario de los partidos del turno en Navarra, 1901-1923, [in:] Príncipe de Viana 49 (1988), p 323, claims that Diario de Navarra was indeed identified with Pradera during the last years of Restoration
Carballo 2013, p. 102 does not specify whether Pradera ran on Jaimist or Mellist ticket; according to La Correspondencia de España 21.05.19 available here the national Carlist political leader Pascual Comín disauthorised Pradera as a Mellist
Andrés Martín 2000, pp. 228-237, 253-256; in this vision, praderismo differed from mellismo by recognition of Alfonso XIII, ideological reductionism, adopting authoritarian threads and broadening the alliance base
Manuel Martorell Pérez, La continuidad ideológica del carlismo tras la Guerra Civil [PhD thesis in Historia Contemporanea, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia], Valencia 2009, p. 358. According to the author, Mella preferred the loosely organised empire of España de los Austrias, while Pradera opted for España de Reyes Catolicos, idealised and unitarian, p. 359
Some claim that PSP enabled survival of Mellismo, embracing most of the orphaned Mellistas, as officially Mellism amalgamated into Jaimismo in 1927, see Carballo 2013, p. 106, also Orella Martínez 2000, p. 195
Orella Martínez 2012, p. 268. In the aftermath of de Mella’s death in 1928 Pradera was president of Comisión Ejecutiva de la Junta de Homenaje, Carballo 2013, p. 100
Ignacio Olábarri Gortázar, Víctor Pradera y el Partido Social Popular (1922-1923), [in:] Estudios de historia moderna y contemporánea: homenaje a Federico Suárez Verdeguer, Madrid 1991, p. 300
Orella Martínez 2000, Orella Martínez 2012, Carballo 2013; some authors claim that emergence of the party was also spurred by regionalist Catalan and nationalist Basque electoral successes of 1917-1918, and Pradera was primarily concerned with unity and integrity of Spain, Olábarri Gortázar 1991, p. 303
Miguel Ayuso, El Carlismo y su signo, [in:] Anales de la Fundación Francisco Elías de Tejada, 14 (2008), p. 122 criticizes Orella’s work for downplaying Pradera’s hostility to christian democracy and to Ángel Herrera; Orella Martínez 2012, pp. 259, 378 suggests that it was rather Ossorio representing christian democracy, while Pradera stood for corporativism
Olábarri Gortázar 1991, p. 306. However, Pradera was reluctant to accept employee stock ownership, tenants’ right to buy off the land cultivated and the female vote, see Orella Martínez 2012, p. 259
Pradera did not know Primo personally and was rather skeptical of him, mostly due to his alleged idea of abandoning Marocco; the Mellistas nurtured a vision of a federation between Spain, Portugal and Morocco, Carballo 2013, p. 107
José Manuel Cuenca Toribio, La Unión Patriótica. Una revisión, [in:] Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, 9 (1996), p. 127, Rafael Gambra, Víctor Pradera en el pórtico doctrinal del Alzamiento, [in:] Revista de Estudios Políticos 192 (1973), p. 158
on state organization, elections, organization of justice and organization of the government and its relations with the Cortes, see Guinea Suárez 1953; Olábarri Gortázar 1991, p. 308, Orella Martínez 2012, p. 173
Maximiliano García Venero, Historia de la Unificacion, Madrid 1970, p. 65, Ana Serrano Moreno, Las elecciones a Cortes Constituyentes de 1931 en Navarra, [in:] Príncipe de Viana 50 (1989), p. 699, Manuel Ferrer Muñoz, Los frustrados intentos de colaboración entre el partido nacionalista vasco y la derecha navarra durante la segunda república, [in:] Príncipe de Viana 49 (1988), p. 130
e.g. taking part in joint initiatives like a letter protesting measures applied against cardinal Segura, Antonio Manuel Moral Roncal, 1868 en la memoria carlista de 1931: dos revoluciones anticlericales y un paralelo, [in:] Hispania Sacra 119 (2007), p. 355
and sounded him on that perspective, Santiago Sánchez Martínez, El cardenal Pedro Segura y Sáenz (1880-1957) [PhD Univ de Navarra], Pamplona 2002, p. 256, also Carballo 2013, p. 114
Pradera was persuaded to withdraw as his presence gave rise to controversies, Carballo 2013, p. 113-4; some authors claim he was the only Carlist in the board, see Blinkhorn 1975, p. 132
some authors consider him a co-founder of Bloque Nacional, see Eduardo Palomar Baró, Victor Pradera Larumbe (1873-1936) entry at generalisimofranco site available here, García Venero 1970, p. 72
Pradera was also outraged that when looking for coalition allies, Gil Robles preferred Lerroux to Carlists, Carballo 2013, p. 116, Blinkhorn 1975, p. 126
and containing articles published in Acción Española throughout 1934, José Luis Orella Martínez, Víctor Pradera; un intelectual entre los ismos de una época, [in:] Navarra: memoria e imagen vol. 2, Pamplona 2006, ISBN8477681791. Available also here
Pedro Carlos González Cuevas, La recepción del pensamiento conservador-radical europeo en España (1913-1930), [in:] Espacio, Tiempo, Forma, 3 (1990), p. 224, Carballo 2013, p. 114, 122, Gambra 1973, p. 149, Orella Martínez 2012, p. 217
some authors claim that state envisaged by Pradera was still far stronger than that envisioned by most Carlists, and “sovereignty” was reserved only for this very state, see Martorell Pérez 2009, pp. 359-360
Blinkhorn, a highly critical British historian argued that the weak point of Estado Nuevo was missing vision of how the Praderian state should be achieved. He suggested that Pradera simply presupposed the existence of a sympathetic consensus, Blinkhorn 1975, p. 151, the same opinion in Bartyzel 2006, p. 294
Blinkhorn 1975, p. 146, José Luis Rodríguez Jiménez, La extrema derecha en España: del tardofranquismo a la consolidación de la democracia (1957-1982) [PhD thesis], Madrid 2001, ISBN8484661296, p. 138
Pradera’s reception among the Carlists is a history of its own. Initially he was acknowledged with enthusiasm. Once he started to serve as a founding father of Francoism, Carlists began to ignore Pradera, see Martorell Peréz 2009, pp. 355, 370. For the Carlist progressists he was worse than ignored – he was banned; “Nosotros nunca citamos a Víctor Pradera” – declared Massó, see Martorell Peréz 2009, pp. 400-02. At that point the Carlist traditionalists like Gambra ceased to “forget” Pradera (Martorell Peréz 2009, pp. 403, 408); it was in 1971 that Tejada and Gambra referred to Pradera in ¿Qué es el carlismo? and started quoting him as a Carlist master, see Gambra 1973. He was hailed as intellectual giant by Fuerza Nueva, see Rodríguez Jiménez, 2002, pp. 271–2, 288. Today Traditionalist Carlists refer to Pradera with caution, considering him a sincere Carlist who got eclectic over time, compare Ayuso 2008, p. 122
there are also scholars who claim exactly the opposite, namely that Pradera was throwing “jealous insults” towards José Antonio and the Spanish fascists, see Ferrán Gallego, El evangelio fascista: la formación de la cultura política del franquismo (1930-1950), Madrid 2014, ISBN8498926769, 9788498926767, p. 32
according to some, Estado Nuevo “ se convirtió en breviario político e institucional de Franco”, see Eduardo Palomar Baró, Victor Pradera Larumbe (1873-1936), while Estado Nuevo was “uno de los libros que más influyó en el pensamiento político de Franco”, Payne 1982, p. 901
Xose Manoel Nuñez Seixas, Nations in arms against the invader: on nationalist discourses during the Spanish civil war, [in:] Chris Ealham and Michael Richards (eds.), The Splintering of Spain. Cultural History and the Spanish Civil War, 1936 –1939, p. 56
David Soto Carrasco, Víctor Pradera: políticas viejas para un estado nuevo; also Serrano Súñer appreciated Pradera as a theorist, see Rodríguez Jiménez 2001, p. 181
Gonzalo Redondo Gálvez, Política, cultura y sociedad en la España de Franco, 1939–1975, vol. 1, La configuración del Estado espanol, nacional y católico (1939–1947), Pamplona 1999, ISBN8431317132; according to the author, "el autoritarismo franquista no fue de signo fascista sino tradicionalista", see Juan María Sánchez-Prieto, Lo que fué y lo que no fué Franco, [in:] Nueva Revista de Política, Cultura y Arte 69 (2000), pp. 30-38
in a recent work Pradera is presented as a pivotal figure in the process of Carlism gradually melting down within a broad extreme Right between 1876 and 1936, see Javier Esteve Martí, El carlismo ante la reorganización de las derechas. De la Segunda Guerra Carlista a la Guerra Civil [in:] Pasado y Memoria. Revista de Historia Contemporánea 13 (2014), pp. 119-140
Orella Martínez 2000, p. 11, Orella Martínez 2006, pp. 257-268. The author notes that in countries like Portugal, Austria, Romania and Hungary the conservatives persecuted fascists, while in Belgium, Norway, Italy and Slovakia the two formations worked hand in hand
some consider Pradera’s works Traditionalism at its best, see Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, Los teóricos izquierdistas de la democracia orgánica, Barcelona 1985, p. 188, others see it as evolution of typical Carlism, since regionalism and dynastical allegiance gave way to corporativism and organicism
most quoted phrase from the book was that “Estado Nuevo is the old traditional state”, Javier Ugarte Tellería, El carlismo en la guerra del 36. La formación de un cuasi-estado nacional-corporativo y foral en la zona vasco-navarra, [in:] Historia contemporánea 38 (2009), p. 68
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism. Comparisons and Definitions, Madison 1980, ISBN0299080609, p. 143; in another of his works, Payne applies a more typical description of "societal corporatism", see his The Franco Regime, Madison 1987, ISBN0299110702, pp. 53-54
or simply “authoritarian”, Iker Cantabrana Morras, Lo viejo y lo nuevo: Díputación-FET de las JONS. La convulsa dinámica política de la "leal" Alava (Primera parte: 1936-1938), [in:] Sancho el Sabio 21 (2004), p. 170, also Agustín José Menéndez, Shifting legal dogma: From Republicanism to Fascist Ideology under the Early Franquismo, [in:] Arena working papers 20 (2000), available here
many authors invoke Pradera against the fascist background, indicate similarities, and apply fascistoid qualifications, but stop just short of naming him fascist, see Enrique Moradiellos, Evangelios fascistas, [in:] Revista de Libros 12 (2014), p. 30, Olábarri Gortázar 1988, p. 323, Ernesto Mila, Renovación Española y Acción Española, la “derecha fascista española”, [in:] Revista de Historia del Fascismo, 2 (2011), María Cruz Mina Apat, Elecciones y partidos políticos en Navarra (1891-1923), [in:] J. L. García-Delgado (ed.), La España de la Restauración: política, economía, legislación y cultura), Madrid 1985, ISBN8432305111, 9788432305115, pp. 120-121, S. Fernandez Viguera, Ideologia de Raimundo Garcia ‘Garcilaso’ en torno al tema foral, [in:] Principe de Viana 47 (1986), pp. 511-531. Only in unrestrained cyberspace Pradera is plainly called fascist, compare here. There are also many scholars who highlight what they consider fundamental differences between Pradera and fascism, see Orella Martínez 2006, pp. 257-268, Fernando del Rey Reguillo, Manuel Álvarez Tardío, The Spanish Second Republic Revisited: From Democratic Hopes to the Civil War (1931-1936), Madrid 2012, ISBN9781845194598, pp. 250-251, Carballo 2013, pp. 126-131, Martin Blinkhorn, Fascists & Conservatives. The radical Right and the establishment in twentieth-century Europe, London 2003, ISBN9781134997121, p. 126, Jacek Bartyzel, Tradycjonalizm (hiszpański) wobec faszyzmu, hitleryzmu i totalitaryzmu, [in:] Pro Fide Rege et Lege 71 (2013), p. 26
and “fascist project turned firmly towards the past”, see Dylan Riley, The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe: Italy, Spain, and Romania, 1870–1945, Baltimore 2010, ISBN9780801894275, pp. 19-20
Manuel Martorell-Pérez, Nuevas aportaciones históricas sobre la evolución ideológica del carlismo, [in:] Gerónimo de Uztariz 16 (2000), pp. 103-104. The author claims that de Mella broke with Pradera because of magmatic nature of his work, which contributed not to excellence, but to the intellectual decay of Carlism; similar opinion, though not expressed that boldly, is presented in Andres Martin 2000, pp. 253-257; the author a number of times points to "minimalist" Praderian strategy of seeking understanding with very broad Right-wing political spectrum
though he remained ambivalent as to their re-introduction; in 1916-1918 he declared that "la situación actual de España no es la oportuna para plantear el pleito de la reintegración foral”, quoted after Estornés Zubizarreta, Victor Pradera Larumbe
Estornés Zubizarreta, Victor Pradera Larumbe; "Regionalismo no es separatismo. [...] El separatismo, o sea la independencia, no lo admitimos nosotros; al contrario, queremos la unidad de la Patria, respetando los derechos que corresponden a todas las provincias”, quoted after Guinea Suárez 1953
according to Pradera municipios are naturally grouped in comarcas, not provincias; actually, he did not recognise official “provincias”, and when advocating “provincial” rights he meant “regiones”, Carballo 2013, pp. 109-110
scholars differ on this point. Martorell Peréz 2009, pp. 359-360, claims that unlike in case of Mella, for Pradera fueros did not provide a “sovereignty” framework; others claim that Pradera envisioned regions as self-established entities, united in federal or confederal Spain, see González Cuevas 1997, pp. 208-9, Olábarri Gortázar 1991, p. 304
Iñaki Iriarte López, Euskaros, nacionalistas y navarristas. Ideologías del pacto y la agonía en Navarra, [in:] Revista Internacional de los Estudios Vascos 44 (1999), p. 62. Other sources claim that Pradera, obsessed by Spanish unity, was not a fuerista at all, see Josep Miralles Climent, Aspectos de la cultura política del carlismo en el siglo XX, [in:] Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, 17 (2005), p. 154
Pradera assailed also cultural initiatives suspected of advancing disunion, like the 1920 unveiling of a monument to the 1522 defenders of Navarre against Castillans, dubbed “traidores, villanos y dignos del patíbulo”, quoted after Emilio Majuelo, La idea de historia en Arturo Campión, Donostia 2011, ISBN9788484192206. p. 116, details in Jesús Etayo Zalduendo, Navarra, una soberanía secuestrada: historia y periodismo (1923-1931), Tafalla 2004, ISBN8481363596, 9788481363593, pp. 196-7, 407-409
In 1931-1933 Pradera and Juan Olazábal formed the nucleus of the Carlist opponents to the Basque autonomy, Iriarte López 1999, p. 63, González Calleja 2012, p. 72, Ferrer Muñoz 1988, pp. 130-1 (claiming that especially the Gestoras version was lambasted as “laico, antiforal and antieconomico”), Manuel Ferrer Muñoz, La Cuestión estatutaria en Navarra durante la Segunda República, [in:] Príncipe de Viana 52 (1991), p. 205, Santiago de Pablo, El carlismo guipuzcoano y el Estatuto Vasco, [in:] Bilduma Rentería 2 (1988), p. 196
Pradera is sometimes considered one of the founding fathers of navarrismo, see Juan María Sánchez-Prieto, Garcia-Sanz, Iriarte, Mikelarena, Historia del navarrismo (1841-1936) [review], [in:] Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos 48 (2003), p. 732; the author claims that Pradera is fundamental to change in Navarrese perception of their enemies: before it was the Spanish state, after it was the Basque nationalism; Roldán Jimeno Aranguren, Los derechos históricos en la renovación del régimen autonómico de Navarra (2004-2006), [in:] Revista interdisciplinar de estudios histórico-jurídicos, 15 (2007/8), p. 344
Blinkhorn 1975, p. 186; full pronouncement of the Tribunal in Memoria elevada al Gobierno de la Republica, Madrid 1934, available here, see also his own explanation as produced during a public meeting here
e.g. when discussing political regime of Vasco-Navarrese region during the Reconquista, he pointed out that Navarre formed a militarised monarchy, Álava was almost republican, Gipuzkoa resembled constitutional monarchy and Biscay formed a señorío, see Carballo 2013, p. 149
"irrevocable espańolidad de las Provincias Vascongadas", quoted after Carballo 2013, p. 143, also “Cataluńa no tiene derecho a ser Estado porque no era nación”, Carballo 2013, p. 155
the level of detail and complexity involved in this highly expert debate can be grasped by looking at Pradera’s discussion with Arturo Campión on dating convention of the papal documents from 1512, see Carballo 2013, p. 148;
Pradera’s lecture which made particular impact was Regionalismo y Nacionalismo address of 1917, re-emphasized and re-formatted as a scholarly discourse titled El mistero de los Fueros Vascos and delivered at Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación; in Por Navarra, para España (1921) Pradera claimed that under the old regime Spain was in fact a confederation, Olábarri Gortázar 1991, p. 304, Blinkhorn 1975, pp. 147-8
Eduardo G. Calleja, Julio Aróstegui Sánchez, La tradición recuperada; el Requeté carlista y la insurrección, [in:] Historia contemporánea, 11 (1994), p. 36; some claim Pradera did not participate actively and was merely informed on progress, Carballo 2013, p. 117
Pradera forged an amicable if not friendly personal relationship with Franco, allegedly considering him “the man of the future”, Guinea Suárez 1953; when leaving Madrid to assume his post in the Canary Islands, Franco asked Pradera to join him, see García Venero 1970, p. 91
Pedro Barruso Barés, La represión en las zonas republicana y franquista del País Vasco durante la Guerra Civil, [in:] Historia contemporánea 35 (2007), p. 656, Pedro Barruso Barés, Manuel de Irujo y la Guerra Civil en Guipúzcoa en el verano de 1936, [in:] Vasconia: Cuadernos de historia - geografía, 32 (2002), p. 71; no documentation of such a tribunal has ever been found, Pedro Barruso, Verano y la revolución. La Guerra Civil en Gipuzkoa
Boletin Oficial del Estado 18.07.49, available here
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