National Syndicalists (Portugal) Spanish Falange, who shared many of their ideas. Nonetheless Rolao Preto clashed with José Antonio Primo de Rivera, whom he dubbed "too capitalist", and the MNS also hinted at wishing to add Spanish Galicia to Portugal, a further source of tension with the Falangist. "Brigadas de choque", a form of stormtrooper organisation, were established by the MNS although rarely utilised, with street battles not really a feature of Portuguese politics at the time. They grew rapidly in their early stages and were estimated to have 25,000 members by 1933, 5,000 more than the governing National Union. The National Syndicalists were
Miguel Primo de Rivera the wealthy and working classes in Spain at the time. Despite his paternalistic conservatism, Primo de Rivera was enough of a reformer and his policies were radical enough to threaten the interests of the traditional power elite. According to British historian Gerald Brenan, "Spain needed radical reforms and he could only govern by the permission of the two most reactionary forces in the country—the Army and the Church." Primo de Rivera dared not tackle what was seen as Spain's most pressing problem, agrarian reform, because it would have provoked the great landholding elite. Writes historian Richard Herr, "Primo was not