What would the defranchisement of Spain have been like if the regime had succumbed to Hitler’s wishes and had been one of the losers of World War II? This is the question asked by the representatives of the republican forces who had to flee Spain after the Civil War before becoming a frustrated desire over the years. The international conflict, in fact, was seen by a large part of the exiles as an opportunity to put an end to Francoism with the support of a Europe that a few years earlier had decided to look the other way.
Hence, the battered republican diplomacy and the reconstituted governments outside Spain, that of the State and those of the two autonomous communities with self-government during the Republic, Catalonia and Euskadi, focused their efforts on this new opportunity offered by the allied powers, while the The Communist Party still relied on weapons and guerrilla warfare and did not hesitate to try its luck with the also unsuccessful invasion of the Val d’Aran.
After the capture in France by the Gestapo of the President of the Generalitat, LluÃs Companys, and a repatriation to Spain that led to his execution, and the disappearance of Lehendakari José Antonio Agirre in Reich-occupied Europe, various regional leaders created the national councils of Catalonia and the Basque Country, which settled in London in 1941, adopting a clear pro-Allied position in the Second World War.
Both councils claimed to be the legitimate representative of the Catalan and Basque governments despite the fact that, in the case of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the death of Companys meant that, according to the 1932 Statute, it should be the president of Parliament, Josep Irla, who assumed the presidency of the autonomous Executive. A position that Irla himself accepted, refusing to emigrate to Mexico to settle in France, a few kilometers from the Catalan border.
The council, for its part, was chaired by Carles Pi i Sunyer, who in the republican Generalitat had held the posts of Culture, Finance and what today would be called the Presidency, both with Francesc Macià and with LluÃs Companys, and for two months had been Minister of Labor and Social Welfare in the first Government of Diego MartÃnez Barrio, who would also become President of the Spanish Republic in exile.
The Catalan and Basque national councils did not hesitate to reject some foundations of republican legality to openly request self-determination and the establishment of a new model of confederal government in Spain. This was made known by a statement that we offer in its entirety to the Minister of State of the British Government on January 18, 1941. Their proposal was to lead the political reorganization of Spain in the new international order that should arise from an Allied victory that at that time time was not yet in sight.
It was a firm commitment that ended up failing not only because of the lack of confidence that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had shown towards the Republic, but also because of the divisions that were generated in exile itself. Initially, after his arrival in the United States and his public reappearance, Lehendakari Agirre disavowed the council, although he assumed a good part of his postulates. Among the Catalan exiles, Esquerra Republicana opted to remain faithful to the letter of the Statute, which was in contradiction with the advice, which Pi i Sunyer himself ended up dissolving despite Irla’s desire to integrate it into the Generalitat in exile.
“The National Council of Catalonia and the National Council of the Basque Country, which represent the continuity of their governments, reaffirm the friendship between their peoples and their purpose of maintaining and reinforcing the cooperation already established between both governments, and to this end they make the following joint declaration :
â€Both councils, interpreting the sentiment of their peoples, reiterate their faith in the democracy affirmed recently during the Peninsular Civil War. They trust in the victory of the United Kingdom and its allies and to this end they are ready to provide all possible collaboration. They aspire to participate in a legal order that restores respect for laws among nations and establishes a just and lasting peace based on the principles of good faith, equality, social justice, free access to resources for education and economic collaboration, with protection for the human person without distinction of race or creed, for the family and religious institutions, with security for all nations, large and small, strong and weak, guaranteed by an effective and democratically-based international institution.
â€The national councils of Catalonia and the Basque Country, by reaffirming the identity of their national aspirations, base their cooperation on the reality of Catalan nationality (the Catalan-speaking countries of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands) and Basque nationality (the territories included in the historic Crown of Navarra), whose right is independent of political contingencies and regimes or systems of government. These two nations possess inherent rights of self-determination, with no other limits than those established by their own freely expressed will or those derived from international conventions or pacts.
“Both councils, in their desire to cooperate in the establishment and consolidation of a normal regime in the territories of the current Spanish state, would welcome any attempt made in this regard, provided it was based on democratic principles and the free will of their respective towns. They will adopt all the measures they deem pertinent to achieve this end and establish a free community of peoples with the same rights.
The governments of both countries will lend their joint support to companies of common interest that are carried out, inside or outside their respective territories, such as the channeling of the Ebro river in order to make it navigable, the adaptation of the railway to the width of international route and other public works that tend to the growth of wealth or to facilitate communications of peninsular, European or intercontinental interest. Its geographical position, its ancient democratic and liberal traditions and its economic potential ensure the political effectiveness of cooperation between the countries of Catalonia and the Basque Country, a solid foundation for the reconstruction and stability of the Peninsula.
â€The national councils of Catalonia and the Basque Country will make every possible effort to ensure that their projects in relation to the Peninsula conform to the fundamental political conditions resulting from the current war. Both councils firmly believe that their countries represent the most effective foundation for the incorporation of the Peninsula into the democratic order for which the United Kingdom is fighting, and that the foundations laid for the reconstruction of the Peninsula may constitute, at the opportune moment, one of the factors for the stability of the reorganization of the European West and the Mediterranean. If it were possible to reach a consensus among the peoples of the Peninsula, with the free cooperation of Portugal, the complete instrument would be available for the management of peninsular relations, European stability and international cooperation.”
