Catalan separatists raise spectre of dictator Franco

MADRID — As their crucial regional election nears, separatists in Catalonia are accusing the Spanish government of acting like the late dictator Francisco Franco, in a country that has yet to heal the wounds of his regime.

The claims have fanned a bitter debate about the nation's democratic credentials.

Catalan leaders liken the tactics of Spain's conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to those of Franco, who suppressed the region's language and culture during a rule that ended with his death in 1975.

Separatists say the crackdown on an independence vote held on October 1 prove the government would stop at nothing to prevent a "democratic" referendum.

But though deposed president Carles Puigdemont has said Spain's treatment of Catalonia exposes "serious democratic shortcomings", the separatists have been accused of making the Franco comparison in bad faith.

"What has emerged in Catalonia, this idea that in Spain 'we live under Francoism', is completely absurd," said historian Julian Casanova.

"The flaws of our democracy are ours alone."

After the regional parliament unilaterally declared Catalonia independent on October 27, Madrid dismissed the Catalan government, suspended the region's autonomy and dissolved its parliament.

Puigdemont and other Catalan leaders fled to Belgium.

"You are Francoists, you are afraid of democracy," one of Puigdemont's former ministers, Toni Comin, said at a rally in Brussels, in remarks aimed at Spain's leaders.

Pro-independence figures hope to regain power in regional elections on December 21. But they are under investigation for sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds over their independence drive.

Of those still in Spain, several have been remanded in custody.