Hello and welcome to the history page. After a slight detour last week
into the rich history of Catalonia and its millenarian tradition of
self-government - initially as a confederation of independent counties
and later as a principality within successively larger states - we will
now return to our regular narrative. We had been discussing the Catalan
Statue of Autonomy, one of the most successful, albeit controversial,
reforms instituted by the Azaña administration during its first year at
the helm of the Second Republic. Despite the fact that Franco abolished
the entire political oeuvre of the Republic when he came to power, the
implementation of Catalan autonomy is held to be a success on the
grounds that, unlike the Agrarian Reform, it survived the reactionary
backlash of the Black Biennium. Indeed, Catalan autonomy remained fully
effective until the end of the civil war in 1939.
Ready and Waiting
By
the early 1930s, every nerve and fiber of Catalan society was geared for
the imminent resumption of self-government within the larger Spanish
state - as had been their custom in days of yore. If we recall the Pact
of San Sebastián (a republican coalition formed in 1930 directly prior
to the proclamation of the new regime), we will remember that one
significant outcome of these talks was the agreement that Catalonia be
granted its autonomy once the Republic became effective. True to the
stipulations of the Pact, in the summer of 1931, a plebiscite was held
in Catalonia in order to gauge public sentiment on the matter. The
results were virtually unanimous with 97% of the electorate voting in
favour of autonomy. Despite grave reservations in the rest of Spain
regarding the issue, Azaña felt honour-bound to make good on the San
Sebastián promise, subsequently reaffirmed by the plebiscite. To this
end, he delivered an impassioned speech which succeeded in winning over
a landslide majority of parliament members, many of whom had previously
been skeptical as to the sagacity of the statute. Azaña argued that:
“… [Primo de Rivera’s] dictatorship tried to treat, and did treat, the
Catalan national sentiment with violence, with oppression, with
persecution … and, at the same time that it did this in Catalonia … it
did the same with Spanish civil liberties. Is it in any way remarkable
or extraordinary that [both movements] have been reborn together? … The
result, naturally, is that Catalan autonomists have put their utmost
faith in the Spanish Republic, identifying for the first time a local
and provincial cause with a greater Spanish cause … for which reason,
this regime holds up as a primordial concern in the organization of
State… that which, until now, has been a local problem of Catalan
nationalism …” (Delivered in Parliament on 12th May 1932)
Autonomy in Practice
The
practical organization of the pre-Franco Catalan government was quite
similar to that subsequently adopted by the remainder of Spanish
autonomies (Ibiza included) that were constituted after the dictator’s
death. One cannot help but note that, as usual, Catalonia was well ahead
of the times, in the sense that the concept of political autonomy, so
revolutionary in the 1930s, is now an accepted mundane reality, a
political right freely exercised by each of Spain’s seventeen
autonomies.
The
Catalan government ruled over its four provinces (Barcelona, Tarragona,
Lérida and Gerona) by means of a political organism known as the
Generalitat, an institution created in medieval times, resuscitated
in 1932, and still in use today. The Generalitat was (and is)
divided into three branches of power represented by a president, an
executive council and a parliament, whose representatives also held
seats in the central parliament in Madrid. The executive council was
divided into consellerías or ‘departments’ (analogous to the
ministries in Madrid) which determined local policies in matters of
internal revenue, economy, education, culture, health, transport,
communications and public order; while, the areas of foreign affairs,
national defense, border control, etc. remained under the competency of
the central government. Potential onflicts arising from the overlap of
central and autonomous authority would be arbitrated by the Tribunal of
Constitutional Guarantees. Also enormously significant for the people of
these lands was the fact that, for the first time since 1714, Catalan
was accepted as the official language of government as well as the
autonomy as a whole.
The
first Catalan elections held in 1932 saw the victory of the left-wing
republican factions that had rallied for and obtained the Statute of
Autonomy. Francesc Macià, lifelong champion of the Catalan cause,
returned from exile at the age of 72 to assume a swansong presidency of
the Generalitat, being succeeded upon his death in 1933 by Lluis
Companys.
Basque-Navarro Dichotomies
The
Basques and Navarros also possessed a strong independent streak;
however, fundamental ideological differences prevented them from
achieving political autonomy during the Second Republic. The first
attempt at drafting a Statute of Basque-Navarro Autonomy took place in
1931 when the conservative and profoundly Catholic PNV (Nationalist
Basque Party) met with Navarra’s reactionary Carlist Party, a
monarchical faction advocating the return of absolutism. Among other
privileges and liberties, the resulting bill upheld the region’s right
to deal directly with the Vatican, unfettered by ecclesiastic mediation
from any of Spain’s bishoprics. Not surprisingly, the socialist and
republican sectors of Basque society dismissed the proposed statute as
retrogressive.
A
second attempt at achieving autonomy was temporarily delayed due to the
withdrawal of Basque-Navarro representatives from parliament, in protest
against the anticlerical legislation instituted by the Azaña
administration. A year later, on 19th June, 1932, local
elections were held to determine the level of acceptance of a new
version of the statue. Of the Basque Country’s three provinces, two
(Biscay and Guipúzcoa) voted in favour of the proposed statute, while
Álava’s urns produced a tie. Navarra, the centre of monarchical
resistence, rejected the proposal altogether, refusing to negotiate with
an ‘atheist’ republic.
At
this juncture, Navarra began to distance itself from the Basque
nationalists, who sought autonomy within the Republic, insisting instead
that Navarra’s traditional charters - abolished in the early 18th
century like those of Catalonia - be reinstated. At least they were
never denied the right to run with bulls! Although, how this custom fits
in with the region’s extreme Catholicism is rather baffling. At any
rate, Navarra’s migration away from Basque nationalism soon caused the
ultra-right Carlists to politically realign with the more prevalent
brand of monarchists, i.e. those who advocated the return of Alfonso
XIII - who, while not an absolute monarch was, at least, a monarch. As
we shall see in future inst! alments, the combined support of these
monarchical factions proved instrumental in Franco’s grab for power.
Closing
A
year later, a third ill-fated attempt to establish Basque autonomy was
obstructed by the rise to power of the conservative Black Biennium
(1933-1935). Join us next week as we soldier on to explore the Azaña
administration’s drastic curtailment of military and clerical power in
Spain. |