The establishment of the Francoist regime

The new Francoist state in Catalonia was established in two phases. The first came in the parts of the provinces of Lérida and Tarragona that were conquered during the initial offensive in March/April 1938, the second between the end of December 1938 and February 1939. On 5 April 1938, Franco abolished the Catalonia Autonomy Statute of 1932, which he denounced as “granted by the Republic at a bad time”, and “returned” to the four Catalan provinces “the honour of being governed on an equal basis with their brothers in the rest of Spain”.

This was followed by the creation of the civil governor positions and provincial leadership of the official party and the application of the rules that had been in place in “national” Spain since the start of the Civil War: the suppression of freedoms and the banning of political parties and trade unions.  These measures were accompanied by a repression that got fiercer as the conquest of Catalonia continued. As well as democrats and leftists of all stripes, the repression specifically targeted Catalan nationalists, all of whom were labelled “separatists”. The Catalan language was stripped of its co-official status, and special orders issued to eliminate its public presence. The use of Catalan was prohibited in schools, books, newspapers and magazines, on the radio, and on labels. Those who violated these rules were prosecuted and punished.

The official party was set up, first in the occupied parts of Lérida and Tarragona, and then in Barcelona and Gerona. Its various branches enrolled men, women, youths and children and organized demonstrations and parades like the one in the village of Ulldecona (Tarragona) shown in the photograph.

The establishment of the Francoist regime also brought the restoration of Catholic worship, which had been suppressed during the war. A huge relief to believers, this won the regime many adherents.

“National” Spain was characterized by a ferocious anti-Catalanism that saw all Catalans as “separatist reds”, that had given rise to demands that industries be moved to other parts of Spain, or that the region be dismembered. In response, Catalan Falangists favored a policy of occupation that would combine the abolition of the Autonomy Statute, with all its consequences, with a certain respect for “Catalan idiosyncrasy”. They made a case for regional diversity and the position of José Antonio Primero de Rivera on the question, which left room for some “literary” use of the Catalan language”. Above all, they hoped that the arrival of peace and subsequent economic reconstruction and improved supply of food to cities such as Barcelona that had suffered shortages during much of the war, would win Catalans over to the so-called New State en masse.

What actually happened was very different. The imposition of a policy of autarky and state intervention was enormously harmful to a region that depended on the export of cotton and food products, something that was now subject to severe restrictions. As a result, much of the working class, and even the middle class, continued to endure the harsh living conditions they had experienced during the war. Nor was the advice of Catalan Falangists followed. Instead, for many years, the regime applied a policy of brutal anti-Catalanism. It would eventually become somewhat less severe, but the Catalan language was never granted any kind of co-official status.