The Popular Front electoral pact in Spain was negotiated between the representatives of the republican groups and those of the Socialist Party (PSOE). The latter were also acting on behalf of the other working-class organizations which would eventually subscribe to the pact. During the negotiations specific political and social measures were discussed. Leaving aside those which were rejected outright – such as the nationalization of land and banks – this essay will concentrate on the measures over which agreement was reached. For these would form the basis of the future government's programme.

The political amnesty was just such a measure, discussed in connection with the reinstatement of workers dismissed because of the events of October 1934. The republicans claimed to be sympathetic towards them, but with one proviso: neither the workers who had taken the jobs of those dismissed nor those employers who had acted without political malice should be victimized. The socialist representatives, on the other hand, stood firm on this point, possibly because reinstatement was the only union (UGT) proposal in a programme which had been drafted by the PSOE executive. In the public sector, it was left up to those formulating the legislation to finalize the policy on reinstatement. In the private sector, cases would be submitted to the jurados mixtos, the arbitration committees on which workers, management and government were all represented.