Generalitat de Catalunya

In 1938 the outcome of the Spanish Civil War was becoming clear. On April 5 in the city of Burgos, General Franco signed a decree abolishing the Government of Catalonia and declared that “the state shall regain the powers of legislation and enforcement that correspond to it in the common-law territories and the services that were transferred to the region of Catalonia”. The military occupation of Catalonia was completed in early 1939. The Government of Catalonia was abolished, its assets were seized and the Provincial Councils were re-established, with the offices of the Barcelona Provincial Council set up in the Palace at Plaça Sant Jaume. Thus began a period of deprivation of democracy and Catalan national rights, which lasted until the death of the dictator on 20 November 1975.

The top officials of the Government of Catalonia and the Spanish Republic were forced into exile. President Lluís Companys took refuge in France, but when France was occupied by the Germans during World War II he was arrested by the Nazis and turned over to Franco’s police. The President of the Government was taken to Madrid and later to Barcelona. He was summarily court-martialled and executed by a firing squad at the Castle of Montjuïc on 15 October 1940.

After the death of Companys, Josep Irla, the President of the Parliament of Catalonia elected in 1938, temporarily assumed the post of President of the Government in exile. In 1945, he formed a government that consisted of well-known figures but was understandably inoperative. After Irla’s resignation in 1954, a group of former members of the Catalan Parliament met at the Spanish Embassy in Mexico, which was maintained by republican officials because the Mexican government had not recognised Franco’s regime. The group decided to maintain the continuity of the institution and elected Josep Tarradellas, who had been the First Minister and Minister of Finance in 1937, to the post of President of the Government of Catalonia. President Tarradellas, who lived in France, was recognised as the guardian of the legal continuity of the Government by Catalan political forces. During the final stages of Franco’s dictatorship, he established contact with the new leaders who had emerged inside Catalonia.