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In April 1931 the people of Spain were permitted to vote in municipal elections. Although pro-monarchists candidates enjoyed more success than their opponents, the king and his closest supporters recognised that where the results really counted, in the country's larger towns and cities, the anti-monarchist parties of the left had enjoyed overwhelming support. Alfonso abdicated, probably forestalling an immediate descent into civil war, and on April 14 the Second Republic was proclaimed against a background of high expectation among the poor and considerable foreboding among the traditionalists.The new leadership of the Provisional Government faced one almost intractable problem- how to satisfy the working class's demand for rapid wide-ranging reform without further alienating the still-powerful but disgruntled traditionalists. A general election in June confirmed the growing strength of the Spanish left but the new government was a loose coalition containing a sizeable number of left-wing parties, such as the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, while the defeated traditionalist alliance contained two reactionary pro-monarchists groups, the Alfonsists and the Carlists.What was lacking was a broad-based centre party to balance the extremists of both left and right. The question of political stability was never resolved and, against a background of growing unrest from both the extreme left and right, Spain staggered from one crisis to another.