The failed separatist insurrection that fuelled the radicalization of the Catalan nationalist youth (1926-1933)
Joan ESCULIESProfessor at Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya and member of the Grup de Recerca en Estats, Nacions i Sobiranies (GRENS) of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Professor at University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia and member of the Research Group in States, Nations and Sovereignties (GRENS) of the Pompeu Fabra University [English version]
E-mail: joan.esculies@uvic.cat
Between 1923 and 1926 Francesc Macià, exiled in France, organized an army of a hundred young Catalans to penetrate Catalonia and promote an insurrection against Miguel Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship. The ex-colonel of the Spanish Army and leader of Estat Català —a Catalan separatist paramilitary movement founded by him— aimed to establish an independent Catalan Republic.
In November 1926 the French gendarmerie dismantled the operation, which had its headquarters in Prats de Molló, a town in the French Pyrenees. Despite the failure, Macià achieved great propaganda success when he was tried at the end of January 1927 in Paris. He used the trial as a platform to explain his political goal: to turn Catalonia into a “southern Belgium”.
The dictatorship in Spain ended in 1931. In March that year, Macià returned to Catalonia and joined Estat Català to other parties to create a new centre-left party, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC). In April, ERC won the local elections and Macià proclaimed the Catalan Republic, while in Madrid the Spanish Republic was also established. After negotiating with the Provisional Government of the Second Spanish Republic, Macià agreed to exchange “his” Republic for an autonomous government and a statute of autonomy —a home rule— within the new regime.
Annoyed with this decision, a youth group called Joventuts d’Esquerra Republicana - Estat Català (JEREC) appeared within ERC. It was led by two figures, Josep Dencàs and Miquel Badia. Neither these young leaders nor most of the members of the JEREC were part of the original Estat Català. JEREC members were a younger generation than those that took part in the Prats de Molló plot. Nevertheless, the failed insurrection had a deep impact on them as a myth of a Catalan army fighting “to liberate Catalonia from Spain”.
The JEREC, between 1931-1933, took a totalitarian aesthetic —considered even fascist— and promoted violent actions against anarchists, syndicalists, Catalan regionalists (rightist moderate Catalan nationalists) and other opponents of ERC and the ideal of a Catalan Republic.
This paper explores how the frustration of these young nationalists for not having participated in the Prats de Molló insurrection and the failure of Macià —turned into a myth due to the subsequent propaganda success— radicalized their nationalism and led them to the point of boycotting the autonomy achieved by Macià, for the sake of an independent state for Catalonia.
The research analyses especially the 1931-1933 period and establishes parallels with the behaviours of other youths frustrated for not having participated in the combats with their country’s armies, such as the German or Italian cases regarding WWI, to clarify whether these segment of young Catalans —a nationalism without a state— had a similar behaviour to that of the youth of state nationalisms.