Alfonso XIII was deposed as King of Spain in 1931. As we all know, the Spanish republic in turn was overthrown in 1939. I know there were Falangists who wanted something Hitler-y, and Carlists who supported a 'pure' Catholic monarchy and alternative succession.
But did anyone suggest bringing the king back, since he was still alive?. Obviously Franco didn't want to share power with anyone, but that obviously wasn't going to be his public rationale for keeping Alfonso away.
Not much people. Although Alfonso XIII did support the actions of Franco (probably because he though that he will remove the republicans and give him back the throne), Franco was not really a supporter of the idea of monarchy (in fact some conservative people used to say that the only defect of Franco was that he was a republican).
Also, note that in the elections in 1931 more than 40 out of 50 provinces voted for republican parties, so the amount of popular support for monarchy was really low.
That said there were small groups of conservatives that wanted the monarchy to came back, but none of them really with effective influence.
The truth is yes and no.
The political parties that supported Franco were:
-Pro-Alfonso monarquists.
-Carlists
-CEDA (conservative-alliance)
-Falange
After the Civil War, many people that supported Franco asked him to restore the monarchy while Falangists asked to reinforce the relation with Mussolini and Hitler. Franco took into account everybody, however, Mussolini pressured Franco not to return the power to the monarchy because that will have benefited the UK. Franco used cleverly his steps. to Gain time (whole WW2) in order to not slight Mussolini and Hitler and giving the power to the Falangists. The end of ww2 will decide which is gonna be his next step.
In 1938, Don Juan de Borbon (alfonso´s son) decided to join nationalists to fight the republicans, in spite of having support in the army, was decided to escort him to the French frontier until the civil war ended. In 40s, Don Juan de Borbon, tried to deal several times with franco without any success until 1947. Finally, in 1948, Franco accepted to deal.
Franco was a general out of politics and the chosen one as a consensus man of the nationalists, in contrast, with Hitler and Mussolini. Franco´s prestige was so high in order to be the chosen one. Mola and Sanjurjo (the only men with more prestige than him died at the early civil war).
In the period of the Second Republic: The conservatives were the major supporters of the monarchy while Socialists and communists were republican supporters. The liberals were extremely weak and divided.
spanish election 1936:
-Republican-left: 48%
-Liberals: 6%
-Conservatives: 46%
