Dictablanda of Dámaso Berenguer

The Dictablanda of Dámaso Berenguer, or Dámaso Berenguer's dictatorship (dictablanda meaning "soft dictatorship" as opposed to dictadura, which means "hard dictatorship") was the final period of the Spanish Restoration and of King Alfonso XIII’s reign. This period saw two different governments: Dámaso Berenguer’s government, formed in January 1930 with the goal of reestablishing “constitutional normalcy” following Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship, and President Juan Bautista Aznar’s government, formed a year later. The latter paved the way to the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic. The term dictablanda was used by the press to refer to the ambivalence of Berenguer’s government, which neither continued the model of the former dictatorship nor did it fully reestablish the 1876 Constitution.