law. The CEDA was not a mere front for fascist aspirations but a party that was based on Catholic values, including a desire to pursue social Catholicism. Gil Robles himself certainly expressed pro-republican views; in an interview with the American journalist Mallory Browne he said, "I am the only friend of the Republic" and was recorded as declaring that "a new dictatorship would produce, after a period of tranquillity, social revolution." Manuel Tardio and Ramon Arango argues that Gil Robles, despite possessing some authoritarian tendencies, did not advocate a dictatorship and neither he nor CEDA stepped beyond the limits of the constitution. Burnett Bolloten observes that Robles refused to seize power with the help of the military and monarchists after becoming war minister in May 1935, something for which they would never forgive him. After the Spanish Right's victory in the November 1933 elections, he maintained support for non-violence and wanted to use evolutionary rather than dictatorial means for achieving his vision of a corporative Spain, despite criticism from monarchists and his own party's youth section. References 1898 births 1980 deaths People from Salamanca Spanish Agrarian Party politicians Popular Action (Spain) politicians CEDA politicians Government ministers during the Second Spanish Republic Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic Politicians from Castile and León Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (National faction) Academic staff of the University of Oviedo University of Salamanca alumni Defence ministers of Spain