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FRANCESC MACIÀ I LLUSSÀ

(Vilanova i la Geltrú, 1859 - Barcelona, 1933). Politician. His family was from Les Borges Blanques (Lleida), and they were wine and oil traders. He studied in Vilanova until he was fifteen years old, then he joined the military engineer's academy in Guadalajara (Castile). In 1887 he was moved to Lleida where he commanded the military engineers. In 1895 he was commissioned to the rank of major and in 1904, to the rank of lieutenant colonel; he leaded some topographic tasks, such as the project concerning the Noguera Pallaresa railway, and in 1888 he married Eugènia Lamarca i de Mier.

He declared his disagreement with the military assault against the premises of a satiric magazine, «Cu-cut!» and a newspaper «La Veu de Catalunya» (1905), he was against the Jurisdiction Law dated 1906 and stand for a post within the frame of Solidaritat Catalana (Catalan Solidarity) for les Borges Blanques and Barcelona. Because of this political attitude he was moved to Santoña (Old Castile), and after refusing the previous promotion to colonel, he was forced to resign from his military career.

After winning the elections in both districts, he renounced to his certificate of election for Barcelona and devoted himself to the certificate of election for les Borges Blanques, which he renewed at every further election (May 910, March 1914, April 1916, February 1918, June 1919, December 1920 and April 1923) and he become and important celebrity in the political circles in Lleida. At the same time he experienced a political evolution by which his personal influence on the nationalist movement was increased. He was disappointed by the failure of the coalition Solidaritat Catalana and so he began to approach the Catalanist republicanism and the radical working class.

He collaborated, together with Martí i Julià, in the weekly magazine «Renaixement», edited by Unió Catalanista (Catalanist Union), fostering from there some revolutionary positions that were publicly set out in the Assembly held in 1917 by the Members of the Parliament.

He tried to get together some sectors belonging to the lower middle class and the working class, that were distributed all over different republican and nationalist organizations, around an independentist program. This event was the origin of the Nationalist Democratic Federation (January-February 1919) that, in the scope of his interest to create a unique catalanist front, became part of the Catalan National Conference (April 1922), and from this one appeared Acció Catalana (Catalan Action); however, his proposal for an independent Catalan State was not accepted and he gave up before coming up with a solution. Then, from the weekly magazine «La Tralla», he organized a new movement intending to group together the radical catalanism; this movement, in July 18, 1922, adopted the name of Estat Català and later linked itself to the separatist centres in America, the first of which had been created in La Havana in March the same year. However, Macià did not abandon the idea of the unique catalanist front, and tried to combine the hegemonic military approach with the Catalan republicanism; so, he came up with the idea of a Left-Wing Federation of Catalonia (February 1923), which was a failure. Anyway, his activity focused on Estat Català.

On September 13, 1923, the field marshal of Catalonia, Miguel Primo de Rivera, instigated a coup d'état from Barcelona and proclaimed the Military Dictatorship. Political parties' activities were prohibited and the parliamentary democracy was also banned. The anti-Catalan phobia of Miguel Primo de Rivera pushed him to foster the repression against the Catalan national personality, so he banned the public use of Catalan language in official events, trade, school... and also he ordered to destroy 8.000 Catalan books belonging to the Sea School de Barcelona and banned the public display of the Catalan flag.

Macià went to exile after the coup d'état, in the middle of October 1923 he settled in Perpignan and later in Bois-Colombes, near Paris.

He began to collect monies to buy weapons to be used in a revolt intended to set Catalonia free, keeping at the same time the relationship with the nationalist Catalan groups in America, that were eager to help economically; on behalf of the provisional government of Catalonia he endorsed the Pau Claris Loan (April 1925).

Willing to undertake a wide policy of alliances, if his objective remained in force, and after the failure of the negotiations with Acció Catalana, he contacted frequently the CNT union members, the Irish groups of De Valera (it was an intent to create a Ligue of Oppressed Nations), the Basque nationalists and the Communist Party of Spain, and he also contacted some other forces, he created the Revolutionary Committee of Paris, and because of this fact he travelled to Moscow, accompanied by Josep Carner i Ribalta and José Bullejos, so as to ask for economical help to the Communist International (October-November 1925), but he didn't achieve his goal though he was introduced by Andreu Nin.

He personally prepared and organized an armed raid in Catalonia, first of all from Bois-Colombes and later from Prats de Molló. The Prats de Molló conspiracy being aborted, Macià was arrested together with Gassol, Carner i Ribalta, Bordas de la Cuesta and some others in the town of Denise and imprisoned in Perpignan. They were moved to the prison of La Santé, in Paris, and a famous lawsuit was started. Because of these facts, Macià became more and more popular and he became the symbol of the Catalan people.

Macià, being Henri Torres his defence lawyer, was sentenced to two months in prison, but he had already been imprisoned during that period of time; and after returning to Bois-Colombes, he was obliged to go to Belgium. After staying several months in Brussels, accompanied by Gassol, he sailed to Uruguay, arriving there in the first days of 1928. He entered Argentina clandestinely and after a lawsuit, he stayed there for some time more than half a year; there, he visited the Catalan centres of Buenos Aires, Rosario, Cordoba, La Plata and Mendoza. He went to Chile, and sailed to La Havana, where he actively took part in the assembly organized by Carner i Ribalta, by Josep Conangla and by himself from Buenos Aires. During this assembly the Revolutionary Separatist Party of Catalonia was founded (he was its president) and the constitution of a future Catalan Republic was approved (September-October 1928).

From there, always with Gassol, he went to New York, in his way back to Europe (in the middle of October 1928). As he was not allowed to enter Switzerland, he went back to Brussels, and there he suggested carrying on the resolution passed by the assembly held in La Havana so as to change Estat Català into the Revolutionary Separatist Party of Catalonia, and this fact gave raise to some tensions in the movement. For this reason, he decided going on using the name of Estat Català.

Being always aware of the conspiracies against the Dictatorship, the failure of the conspiracy instigated by Sánchez Guerra pushed him to go back to Catalonia, and he requested again some economic help to the Catalan centres in America, so as to undertake a military operation, but this time from inside Catalonia. Meanwhile, the dictatorship of general Primo de Rivera had fallen (January 1930) and within the scope of a strong campaign in favour of the amnesty, Macià went illegally across France, arriving in Barcelona in September 1930. He was arrested and sent back to Belgium. Finally, after general Berenguer had been defeated, he went back to Catalonia, without suffering any inconveniences, on February 22, 1931. He attended the left wing conference (March 1931), he believed that Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya was already set up and he was elected president of its Leading Council. After the triumph of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya in the local elections of April 12, he proclaimed the Catalan Republic in April 14, incorporated within the frame of a Federation of Iberian Republics and the formation of the Catalan Republic Government, after removing from his post the president of the monarchic county council, Maluquer i Viladot. He immediately took charge of the Government of Catalonia. As interim president of the Catalan Republic he asked all the city councils to proclaim the Republic in every location of Catalonia and signed the official text proclaiming the Catalan State under the regime of a Catalan Republic. He formed a government with Esquerra Republicana and the Unió Socialista de Catalunya (Socialist Union of Catalonia), and took several political measures with the new authorities (López Ochoa, Companys, Aiguader, Anguera de Sojo).

Three days after a long negotiation, he accepted restructuring the Government of Catalonia into the Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya ant to draft a Statute of Autonomy. He was the interim president of the Generalitat, and after the crisis occurred in December 1931 he was also in charge of the agriculture department. After being elected member of the Constituent Assembly for Barcelona (June 1931), he publicly submitted the victory of the plebiscite about the statute and presided the delegation that delivered the text to the president of the Spanish Republic, Alcalá Zamora, accompanied by Gassol, and some others. He also became depositary of the modified text of the statute passed by the Parliament of the Republic (September 1932). He was elected member of the assembly for Barcelona in the elections for the Parliament of Catalonia (November 1932), he opened the sessions, and after being re-elected as the president of the Generalitat, he delegated his executive tasks, first to the minister of the autonomous government Joan Lluhí i Vallescà (December 1932), and later to the also ministers of the autonomous government Carles Pi i Sunyer and Miquel Santaló. Being worried by the slowness in the transfer of powers to the Autonomous Governement, the Generalitat, he was elected member of the Assembly for Barcelona for Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (November 1933).

That year, in autumn, doctors advised him that because of his age, it was not good for him getting tired. In September, he suffered from and intestinal obstruction, and after a surgery the condition became more serious. In the morning of December 25, being Christmas Day, in the year of 1933, the President Francesc Macià i Llussà died at his home located at Casa dels Canonges, in the Generalitat Palace. He died acting as the President of the Generalitat.

The President's body was exhibited in the Sant Jordi Lounge, inside the Generalitat Palace, and two days later he was moved on an ammunition limber, pulled by horses and receiving the honours due to a general, to the New Cemetery of Barcelona. When passing in front of the Great Theatre of Lyceum, the orchestra played Els Segadors (national hymn of Catalonia) as a funeral march. It was a unique mourning day in our history.

Everybody called him sympathetically "l'Avi” (the Grandfather), and he became the symbol of the willingness of national affirmation existing in Catalonia.