Falange Española Falange Española Falange Española (FE) (English: Spanish Phalanx) was a Spanish political organization of fascist inspiration active in 1933 and 1934. It was created on 29 October 1933 as successor of the Movimiento Español Sindicalista (MES), a similar organization founded earlier in 1933. The foundational meeting took place in La Comedia theatre of Madrid and was conducted by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Julio Ruiz de Alda and Alfonso García Valdecasas. In February 1934 after the bad results at the ballots in the 1933 election, José Antonio Primo de Rivera suggested a fusion of Falange Española with the Ramiro Ledesma's
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