CEDA

The Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (lit. 'Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights', CEDA) was a Spanish right-wing political party in the Second Spanish Republic. A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Ángel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined itself in terms of the 'affirmation and defence of the principles of Christian civilization,' translating this theoretical stand into a political demand for the revision of the anti-Catholic passages of the republican constitution. CEDA saw itself as a defensive organisation, formed to protect religious toleration, family, and private property rights.

The CEDA claimed that it was defending the Catholic Church in Spain and Christian civilization against authoritarian socialism, state atheism, and religious persecution. It would ultimately become the most popular individual party in Spain in the 1936 elections. The party represented the interests of the Catholic voters as well as the rural population of Spain, most prominently the medium and small peasants and landowners. The party sought the restoration of the powerful role of the Catholic Church that existed in Spain before the establishment of the Republic, and based their program solely on Catholic teaching, calling for land redistribution and industrial reform based on the distributist and corporatist ideals of Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno.