Eighteen months of exchange negotiations

With the possibility of a government led by Martínez Barrio ruled out, the solution was to turn to another of the President’s loyalists, José Giral. A chemist and pharmacist and deputy for the Republican Left, Giral was Minister of the Navy in Casares Quiroga’s government and had also served as a minister under Azaña. Despite the gravity of the task—or perhaps because of it—Giral accepted. His cabinet was little changed from the Casares government it replaced. With almost no room for maneuver due to the time that had passed and with the uprising gaining momentum, the new government agreed to distribute weapons.

It was 19 July That morning, General Franco landed with the Dragon Rapide in Morocco, and General Mola read his war proclamation in Pamplona. The coup was reaching its climax. Aware of the gravity of the situation and the need to mobilize all available resources, the government issued a statement in the press appealing for the people's support and expressing “gratitude for their heroic cooperation.” It also declared its willingness to go to “the utmost lengths” to defend democracy and “prevent citizens having rights they won honourably taken away.”

The distribution of weapons to the people left the Giral government without a monopoly over the control of public order. This was compounded by the collapse of the state caused by the coup which created space for revolutionary situations in various areas of the country loyal to the Republic. The Giral government proved powerless to impose its authority. The loss of control over public order in the face of the militias’ dominance led to numerous incidents of violence and disorder. One of the most tragic for the Republic was the night of 22 to 23 August —the night of the massacre at Madrid’s Modelo prison. About thirty prominent politicians and military figures were killed by militiamen. This event was a severe blow to the Republic’s reputation abroad and left both Azaña and Giral deeply shaken.

With the coup having been turned into a war, much of Giral's work focused on trying to regain control of the state. He also aimed to guarantee the safety of the numerous Republican prisoners in rebel-held areas, for which he developed an intense policy of prisoner exchanges.

The dismantling of much of the state apparatus also made it difficult to organize an adequate defense against the rebel advances, which eventually led to Giral’s resignation and his replacement by Francisco Largo Caballero. Giral remained in the government as a minister without portfolio. In 1946, after the end of World War II, when everyone assumed that Francoism would fall alongside other fascist and military dictatorships, Giral once again led a Republican coalition government, hoping to oversee the return of democracy in Spain.

PMC