Catalan State (1934)

The Catalan State (Catalan: Estat Català, IPA: [əsˈtat kətəˈla]) was a state proclaimed in 1934 by Lluís Companys as the "Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic".

Lluís Companys i Jover, President of the Generalitat that proclaimed the last Catalan State in 1934

On 6 October 1934: The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Lluís Companys (ERC), proclaimed the Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic. The event was part of a semi-insurrectional program of the left against the new Spanish right-wing republican government led by Alejandro Lerroux, which incorporated as ministers some members of the CEDA, Spanish political party that was considered close to fascism and, therefore, they feared that it was the first step of this party to take the power as Hitler and Dollfuss made in Germany and Austria.

Bank note from the Generalitat de Catalunya, 1936

The attempt was quickly aborted by the Spanish government, the general Domènec Batet, chief of the IV Organic Division in Catalonia, crushed the uprising. Companys was arrested and imprisoned; the autonomous government suspended, and virtually all its members jailed. After the Popular Front victory in the February 1936 Spanish general election, his government was pardoned and reinstated in their functions.

See also

• Events of October the 6th