Simmering resentment threatens to boil over
As civil war wounds reopen in Catalonia, hopes of dialogue grow increasingly slim
The warning from the BARCELONA spokesman of Spain’s ruling party stopped hearts across Catalonia: If Carles Puigdemont declared independence, he might “end up like the man who declared it 83 years ago.”
That man was Lluis Companys, the Catalan president who was imprisoned and later executed by the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
His death, on Oct. 15, 1940, was marked by a march to Barcelona’s Montjuic Castle, the site of the public act of punishment that still rankles deep in Catalans’ historical consciousness. Accompanied by his entire cabinet, Puigdemont placed a wreath at the tomb of Companys, whose reported cry “For Catalonia!” as he faced the firing squad immortalized him as a martyr to the modern day independence movement.
As outrage grew over his words, Pablo Casado, the spokesman for Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP), claimed he had not been referring to Companys’ execution but instead his earlier imprisonment for “rebellion” after he declared a Catalan state within a Spanish federal republic.
But he was unapologetic: the only ones who were “nationalist, xenophobic, exclusionary and totalitarian,” the only ones “fuelling the violence,” were the Catalan separatists, he insisted.
As the Catalonia crisis deepens, nationalist tempers are flaring and civil war insults flying in both directions, polarizing Spain further into two distinct realities where one side’s traitor is the other’s hero.
“They criticize our schools and the way we teach history,” said Elisenda Paluzie, economy professor at the University of Barcelona.
As long-simmering resentments surface, sights that many regarded as consigned to history are once again being witnessed. Members of Franco’s Falange — small but increasingly active — perform the fascist salute and sing the dictatorship anthem Cara al Sol at protests against Catalan independence.
On Thursday, as Spain celebrated its national day, two farRight groups fought running battles in Barcelona’s Plaza Cataluna during a pro-unity rally.
Pro-independence Catalans increasingly recur to cries of fascism and dictatorship.
Hopes of dialogue — always slim — fade further with each seething exchange. Puigdemont has suspended Catalonia’s declaration of independence to allow for talks, while Rajoy holds out the prospect of national constitutional reform if he retracts the declaration entirely.
But many on both sides feel they are past the point of no return, and the suspension of Catalonia’s autonomy looms. Experts lay at least some of the blame with Spain’s failure to deal with the legacy of the dictatorship, hastily swept under an amnesty law after the death of Franco in 1977.
Goran Lindblad, president of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, said Spain needed to take steps to address the lingering pain of the dictatorship years.
As for Mr Casado’s conjuring of Companys’ fate, he said: “It is not responsible to talk about executions in a democracy.”