Falange Española (FE; English: Spanish Phalanx) was a Spanish fascist political organization active from 1933 to 1934.

History

The Falange Española was created on 29 October 1933 as the successor of the Movimiento Español Sindicalista (MES), a similar organization founded earlier in 1933. (Falange translates as Phalanx in English.) 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 poor results at the ballots in the 1933 election, José Antonio Primo de Rivera suggested a fusion of Falange Española with the Ramiro Ledesma's Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista, which was approved on 15 February. The Falange Española de las JONS (FE de las JONS) was subsequently formed. The Falange's first clash with Marxist groups took place on 5 November 1933, when its militants had a rift with socialist sympathizers at a football game in Almoradí (Province of Alicante).