Politika
- A conversation with Primo de Rivera
- The congress of Narodna Odbrana
Primo de Rivera promises an occupational legislature but retains censorship of published speeches. A separate congress communiqué records Narodna Odbrana delegates and praises the meeting’s tone.
Selected, image-checked first-page passages; partial reading, not complete articles or the whole page.
Translation
A conversation with Primo de Rivera
I will tell you more than I have told anyone. It will be a parliament of occupations. There will be 300 deputies, elected for three years by all the unions and all the professions. There will also be a few women, schoolteachers, alongside their male colleagues. Everything will be fundamentally democratic. No privileges for wealth. In the banks, all employees will vote freely too.
This parliament will not be a mere advisory body, but a true legislature whose decisions will have full force.
It will hold three sittings a week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and deputies will spend four days in the country’s interior. There will be complete freedom of speech in the chamber. Censorship will remain for the publication of speeches that might dangerously disturb the public and foreign countries. Deputies will enjoy full freedom.
The congress of Narodna Odbrana
Yesterday the congress of Narodna Odbrana was held at the home of the Circle of Sisters. The following communiqué on its proceedings was issued last night:
The congress of Narodna Odbrana was held today in the hall of the Circle of Serbian Sisters from 9:30, in the presence of the celebrated Field Marshal Stepa Stepanović, members of Narodna Odbrana’s central and local committees, and 58 delegates from every part of our enlarged homeland.
The congress proceeded in a dignified manner, as befits this important and great organization.
Context
Representation by occupation rather than party
Primo de Rivera’s proposed chamber would organize political representation through unions and occupations. That was a way to promise participation while avoiding a return to ordinary party competition. The Spanish parliament’s institutional history places the proposal within a dictatorship that had suspended constitutional guarantees after the 1923 coup. The later National Assembly, created in 1927, was consultative and supervisory, rather than the fully empowered legislature promised in this interview.
A free speech that could not freely reach the public
The interview draws a boundary between speaking inside the chamber and publishing those speeches outside it. Deputies could supposedly debate freely, while the government retained power to prevent the public from hearing statements it considered dangerous. That distinction matters for representation: voters cannot fully judge a debate they are not permitted to read. The pledge of freedom and the preservation of censorship are both integral to the proposed arrangement.
A civic congress staged as a national gathering
The Narodna Odbrana communiqué builds the congress’s authority from three elements: a celebrated military figure, the organization’s committees, and delegates from across the enlarged homeland. The venue supplied by the Circle of Serbian Sisters also places the event within a network of civic associations. The report presents unity and dignity as achievements in themselves, showing how an association’s meeting could serve as a public performance of national cohesion.
Original
Један разговор с Примо де Ривером
Рећи ћу вам више него што сам икоме рекао. То ће бити професионални парламенат. Биће три стотине посланика изабраних на три године од стране свих синдиката и свих занимања. Биће и неколико жена, учитељица, поред својих мушких колега. Све ће бити у суштини демократски. Никакве привилегије богатству. По банкама гласаће и сви чиновници слободно.
Тај парламенат неће бити прост саветодавни орган, него право законодавно тело, чије ће одлуке бити пуноважне.
Тај парламенат држаће три седнице у недељи, уторником, средом и четвртком, а четири дана ће посланици проводити у унутрашњости земље. У скупштинској сали пуна слобода говора. Цензура ће остати за објављивање оних говора који би били опасни да узнемире народ и иностранство. Посланици ће уживати пуну слободу.
КОНГРЕС НАРОДНЕ ОДБРАНЕ
Јуче је у Дому Кола Сестара одржан конгрес Народне Одбране. О раду конгреса синоћ је дато ово саопштење:
Конгрес Народне Одбране одржан је данас у сали Кола Српских Сестара од 9 и по часова у присуству прослављенога војводе Степе Степановића, чланова Средишног и Месног Одбора Народне Одбране као и 58 делегата Народне Одбране из свију крајева наше проширене Отаџбине.
Конгрес је протекао у достојанственом тону, онако како то овој значајној и великој организацији доликује.