The Spanish Civil War - pg. 50

Despite these preparations, the Republican leaders discounted
all warnings. Azaña, the president, and Casares Quiroga, his
replacement as prime minister, were on par with Chamberlain
facing Hitler. At times it almost seemed as if they wanted to be
deceived. Azaña certainly appeared to have lost all political sense.
He was suffering from bouts of depression, interspersed by
occasional flashes of flippancy. 'The only Spaniard who is always
right is Azaña,' he remarked to one visitor. 'If all Spaniards were
Azañistas all would be well.' He and the government
seemed to have no understanding of the military threat. They
scornfully dismissed all warnings, whether from loyal senior
officers, like General Nuñez de Prado, or from the communist
deputy, Dolores Ibarrui, better known as 'La Pasionara', who
came with the come with the communist organizer in Pamplona
to tell Casares Quiroga of Mola's preparations.........The final,
fatal paradox of the liberal Republic was expressed by its
government not daring to defend itself againt its own army
by arming the workers who elected it. It merely proclaimed
that it was 'the legally constituted government'. But Spanish
history showed how legitimacy tended to be an arbitrary and
subjective term, little more than a euphemism for right of
conquest and subsequently manitained power.