''El Debate'' is a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

, that was originally published in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

between 1910 and 1936. It was the most important Catholic newspaper of its time in Spain. It was relaunched in 2021 as an online publication.

History and profile

''El Debate'' was founded in 1910 by Guillermo de Rivas during the controversy originated by the so-called Padlock Bill, against the establishment of any more religious orders in Spain. It suffered a very unsuccessful management during its first months and it was sold to

Ángel Herrera Oria Ángel Herrera Oria (19 November 1886 – 28 July 1968) was a Spanish journalist and Roman Catholic politician and later a cardinal. He established the Instituto Social León XIII (later renamed Fundación Pablo VI) to promote the social doc ...

and his Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas (ACNdP). Herrera Oria edited the newspaper from 1911 to 1933. Its headquarters was in Madrid. Ideologically, ''El Debate'' was very conservative and

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* Cleric (disambiguation) * Clerk (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

, and journalistically it was very modern. The paper imported journalistic techniques from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and in 1926 opened the first

Journalism School A journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. 'J-School' is an increasingly used term for a journalism department at a school or college. Journalists in most parts of the ...

of Spain. It was the first newspaper with specific sport information. During the dictatorship of

Miguel Primo de Rivera Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, Grandee, GE (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a Spanish dictator and military officer who ruled as prime minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during the last years of the Resto ...

(1923–1930) ''El Debate'' supported the previous

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

in order to protect religious, moral and juridical values. When the Second Republic was proclaimed, the newspaper declared its compliance to the new regime, although this annoyed many of its

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. C ...

readers. During the Second Republic (1931–1936) the government suspended its activity several times. The paper supported the

Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right The Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (, CEDA) was a Spanish right-wing political party in the Second Spanish Republic. A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Ángel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined ...

(CEDA), the rightist and possibilist coalition that won election in 1933. After the beginning of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, the facilities were the newspapers of the ACNdP publishing house,

Editorial Católica An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an Article (publishing), article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the editorial board, senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expre ...

, were printed, were confiscated by the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain (; PCE) is a communist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is currently part of Sumar. Two of its politicians are Spanish government ministers: Yolanda Díaz (Minister of L ...

and Republican Left. While the Communist voice, ''

Mundo Obrero ''Mundo Obrero'' (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Workers World'') is the periodical of the Communist Party of Spain (main), Communist Party of Spain (PCE). The paper is based in Madrid, Spain. History and profile ''Mundo Obrero'' was first publishe ...

'', was printed using the material of '' Ya'', a little pre-war newspaper, '' Política'', the voice of Republican Left took ''El Debate'' ones. In 1939 the

Francoist Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

government did not give permission for the reestablishment of ''El Debate'', and Editorial Católica re-issued ''Ya'', a newspaper with less political significance, that was the actual heir of ''El Debate''.

Website

El Debate, launched in 2021, styles itself as the heir to the newspaper. It is operated by the Catholic Association of Propagandists (the former ACNdP). In 2024, Ramón Pérez-Maura was chief of the editorial page.

References

Bibliography

*Artola, Miguel (ed.): ''Enciclopedia de Historia de España'', Madrid: Alianza, V, pp. 387–388 {{DEFAULTSORT:Debate, El 1910 establishments in Spain 1936 disestablishments in Spain Defunct newspapers published in Spain Newspapers published in Madrid Newspapers established in 1910 Publications disestablished in 1936 Defunct Catholic newspapers Defunct Spanish-language newspapers