Lluís Companys
President of the Parliament of Catalonia | |
---|---|
In office 14 December 1932 – 20 June 1933 | |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Joan Casanovas i Maristany |
Minister of the Navy | |
In office 20 June 1933 – 12 September 1933 | |
Prime Minister | Manuel Azaña |
Preceded by | José Giral |
Succeeded by | Vicente Iranzo Enguita |
Personal details | |
Born | Urgell, Catalonia, Spain | 21 June 1882
Died | 15 October 1940 Montjuïc, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain | (aged 58)
Political party | Catalan Republican Party Republican Left of Catalonia |
Spouse(s) | Mercè Micó (div.) Carme Ballester |
Children | Lluís (1911–1956) |
Lluís Companys i Jover (Catalan pronunciation: [ʎuˈis kumˈpaɲs]; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a Catalan politician who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
Companys was a lawyer close to
Companys remained the head of the Catalan government during the Spanish Civil War, remaining loyal to the
Early life
Born in
Later, he became affiliated with the ephemeral
With
Despite having been deported, Companys was elected member of parliament for Sabadell in the 1920 Spanish legislative elections, taking the place of Layret, who would have taken that seat had he not been assassinated.[4] This gave him parliamentary immunity, which secured his release from prison.
Companys was one of the founders of the peasants' trade union Unió de Rabassaires in 1922, where he worked as lawyer and director of the La Terra magazine during the years of the Primo de Rivera regime in the 1920s.
Detained again, he was unable to attend the Conferència d'Esquerres (Conference of Leftists) held from 12 to 19 March 1931 that produced the political party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia) from the merging of Estat Català (led by Francesc Macià), the Partit Republicà Català itself and the group L'Opinió (which included Joan Lluhí as prominent figure); however, he was elected as an executive member of that party, representing the Partit Republicà Català. Thanks to the bonds between the Spanish labour movement and the Spanish trade union movement, the election of Companys to this position gave the ERC great prestige amongst left-wing public opinion as it would otherwise have been regarded as a party of the progressive petty bourgeoisie.
Proclamation of Second Spanish Republic
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2017) |
In the
After controlling the Barcelona City Hall, Macià ordered Companys to take the office of "Gobernador Civil" (civil governor) of the Barcelona Province, which at that time held considerable powers «such as policing. It had been controlled by
Presidency of Catalonia and proclamation of Catalan State
After the death of Francesc Macià on 25 December 1933, who was presiding over the Generalitat of Catalonia, Companys was elected the successor President of the Generalitat by the Catalan Parliament, appointing a new coalition government composed by the Republican Left of Catalonia and the other left-wing republican and catalanist parties. Under his presidency, the Parliament legislated in order to improve the living conditions of the popular classes and the petite bourgeoisie such as by the Crop Contracts Law, which protected the tenant farmers and granted access to the land they were cultivating, but it was contested by the Regionalist League and provoking a legal dispute with the Spanish government led by Ricardo Samper, increasing the tensions. Meanwhile, the Generalitat established its own Court of Appeal (Tribunal de Cassació)[8] and assumed executive powers in public order, according as the Statute of Autonomy stipulated.
On 6 October 1934, Companys led a
Civil War
When the
In November 1936, the Generalitat government were to become target of a
Exile and execution
Exiled to France in 1939 after the Civil War, Companys had passed up various chances to leave France because his son Lluís was seriously ill in a clinic in
Surprisingly, Colubí defended Companys with courage to the point of receiving severe beatings and threats to his own life. Colubí asked Franco to pardon Companys but was ignored and then beaten again, this time by Franco. As a consequence of his role as defence attorney, Colubí was forced to go into exile.
The
His personal archive is located in the Pavelló de la República CRAI Library – University of Barcelona. It consists of correspondence about him, as well as discourses and declarations between 1936 and 1938.
See also
- List of people executed by Francoist Spain
- Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War
- Red Terror (Spain)
- White Terror (Spain)
References
- ^ "Presidents of the Generalitat". catalangovernment.eu. Generalitat de Catalunya. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ Finestres, Jordi (October 2012). "Lluís Companys. El president màrtir" (in Catalan) (121). Barcelona: Sàpiens: 46–49.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ISSN 0037-2501
- ^ Abelló 2006, p. 118
- ^ «Proclamación de la República en Barcelona». La Vanguardia.[1] 15 de abril de 1931.
- ^ Carr, Raymond. Modern Spain: 1975–1980. Oxford University Press, 1980, p. xvi.
- ISBN 978-84-92437-26-9.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Roca i Trias, Encarna. El tribunal de Cassació de la Generalitat republicana: La història d'una tradició prohibida, 2009, 18 pages from a conference
- ^ Preston, Paul. The Spanish Civil War. Reaction, revolution & revenge. Harper Perennial. London. 2006. p. 78
- ^ Beevor, Antony. The battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Penguin Books. 2006. London. p. 30
- ISSN 1695-2014.
- ^ Preston, Paul. The Spanish Civil War. Reaction, revolution & revenge. Harper Perennial. London. 2006. pp. 253–254
- ISBN 978-8437089157
- ^ a b Preston, Paul. (2012). The Spanish Holocaust. Harper Press. London p. 493
- ^ Juliá, Santos; Casanova, Julián; Solé i Sabaté, Josep Maria; Villarroya; Moreno, Francisco. Victimas de la guerra civil. Ediciones Temas de Hoy. 1999. Madrid. p. 331
- ^ The drumhead court-martials carried out were based on the application of the Military Code for rebellion against all those who oppose the revolt. This meant that the real rebels against the legal authority condemned for the crime of rebellion, accession or aid the rebellion who had been loyal to the legitimate government.
Even Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time, recognised it years later by affirming that the entire legal basis of the facts of Civil War were based on a "justice backwards" and concluded, "it was therefore an error configuring the offenses of rebellion and sedition in order to attribute this offenses to the defenders of republican government, because these – legally and even metaphysically – were not able to commit them".(Solé, 1999)
- ^ Gary McDonogh, Gary (2009) Iberian Worlds. Taylor & Francis At Google Books. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
- ^ Burns, Jimmy (2000). Barca: a people's passion. Bloomsbury. p. 126.
- ^ Preston, Paul. (2012). The Spanish Holocaust. Harper Press. London p. 493
Sources
- Abelló, Teresa (2006). Els Anys de la Segona República (1931–1936). Barcelona: Edicions 62. ISBN 978-8429757637.
- Ossorio, Ángel (1943). Vida y sacrificio de Companys. Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada
- Alcalá Giménez, César (2021). La Cobardia de ERC: Los 10 Primeros de la Guerra Civil. Barcelona: SND. ISBN 978-8418816116.