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When, in late spring of 1936, all the conspiracies against the government began to converge, the Traditionalist Communion was the only right-wing organization that resisted military dominance and the program drawn up by General Mola. Convinced of their importance to the uprising—due to their numbers and their organizational and mobilization capacity—the Carlists presented Mola with inflexible demands, such as the repeal of the Constitution and all secularizing laws; the dissolution of all political parties, including those collaborating with the coup; the proclamation of a temporary dictatorship to restructure the state along corporatist lines; and the adoption of the red-and-yellow bicolor flag. Political leadership of the new regime was to fall to a Directory composed of a military leader and two civilian advisors appointed by the Traditionalist Communion. Their preference was that General Sanjurjo would serve as president, while they anticipated that José Antonio would be one of the selected civilian members.

These demands clashed with the goals of the conspiracy and its deliberate intent to present a broad and vague project so as not to alienate any of the organizations potentially willing to join a rebellion against the Popular Front. Negotiations began from this point, starting with a meeting between Mola and Manuel Fal Conde in Irache on 15 June. The encounter was cordial but showed no signs of agreement. Fal Conde was in exile in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, which made it difficult to arrange a second meeting. On 2 July, the Carlist leader sent Mola a note in which he reiterated the non-negotiable demand for the red-and-yellow flag and for the power to appoint the two civilian advisors, threatening to withhold support if these conditions were not met. In response, Mola asked Gil Robles and Luca de Tena to meet with Fal Conde on 5 July to persuade him to join them. Both agreed, but their mission ended in failure.

The tug-of-war continued. The Carlists appealed to Sanjurjo, who mediated between them and the Director through a letter in which he supported their right to use the red-and-yellow flag—“that is, the Spanish flag”—and expressed a vision for the future political organization that aligned more closely with that of the Traditionalists. The stalemate persisted until it led to a formal break when Mola questioned the authenticity of the letter, as Sanjurjo had signed it without including the agreed-upon code word. The Carlists then decided to proceed with their own conspiracy. However, the assassination of Calvo Sotelo on 13 July marked a point of no return for the Traditionalists. The next day, they issued a statement declaring their support for the coup, while also recalling the assurances Sanjurjo had given them. From that moment on, the Carlists were part of the military conspiracy, contributing weapons they had acquired for their militias.

PMC