Lluís Companys i Jover (Catalan pronunciation: [ʎuˈis kumˈpaɲs]; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a Catalan politician from Spain who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
Companys was a lawyer close to the labour movement and one of the most prominent leaders of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) political party, founded in 1931. He had a key role in the events of the proclamation and first steps of the Second Spanish Republic. Appointed president of the Generalitat of Catalonia in 1934 after the death of the previous president, Francesc Macià, his government tried to consolidate the recently acquired Catalan self-government and implement a progressive agenda, despite the internal difficulties. Opposed to the inclusion of the right-wing CEDA party in the coalition Spanish government during the strikes and insurgency in October 1934, on 6 October he proclaimed a new Catalan State. He and Catalan government officials were subsequently arrested and imprisoned.
After the left-wing Popular Front won the Spanish national election in 1936, Companys was pardoned, and he returned to head the fractious Catalan government. He remained president during the Spanish Civil War, loyal to the Republican faction. A refugee in France after the Republican defeat in 1939, he was arrested in 1940 by the secret police of Nazi Germany, the Gestapo. Extradited back to Francoist Spain, he was executed on 15 October 1940.
Lluís Companys i Jover was born in El Tarròs near Lleida in western Catalonia on 21 June 1882. His parents, Josep Companys and Maria Lluïsa de Jover, were peasants with aristocratic roots. The second child of ten, Companys was sent to boarding school in Barcelona at the Liceu Poliglot. He obtained his law degree from the University of Barcelona, where he met Francesc Layret, another Catalan nationalist with an interest in politics.
Companys participated in the political life of Catalonia from a young age. In 1906, the military pressured and attacked the offices of Catalan newspapers Cu-Cut! and La Veu de Catalunya, events which were followed by the passage of the repressive Ley de Jurisdicciones ("Law of Jurisdictions"), making speech against Spain and its symbols a criminal offense. In response to these events, he participated in the creation of the successful coalition Solidaritat Catalana. Later, he became affiliated with the ephemeral Republican Nationalist Federal Union (Unió Federal Nacionalista Republicana), where he was president of the youth section. He was investigated for his intense youth activities and was jailed fifteen times. After the violent confrontations in Barcelona during Tragic Week in 1909, he was classified as a "dangerous individual" in police records.
With Francesc Layret, Companys represented the left-wing labour faction of the Partit Republicà Català (Catalan Republican Party), for which he was elected local councilor of Barcelona in 1916. In November 1920, he was arrested together with Salvador Seguí (known as El Noi del Sucre), Martí Barrera and other trade unionists, and he was deported to the Castell de la Mola in Mahón, Menorca. While Layret was preparing Companys' legal defense, he was assassinated by gunmen of the Sindicatos Libres. In the 1920 Spanish legislative elections Companys took the place of Layret, who would likely have won that election, and despite having been deported, Companys was elected member of parliament for Sabadell. As a member of parliament he had legal immunity, which secured his release from prison.
In 1922 Companys was one of the founders of the peasants' trade union Unió de Rabassaires, where he worked as lawyer and director of the La Terra magazine during the years of the Primo de Rivera regime in the 1920s. Detained again, he was unable to attend the Conferència d'Esquerres (Conference of Leftists), held from 12 to 19 March 1931. The conference produced the political party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia) by merging Estat Català (led by Francesc Macià), the Partit Republicà Català itself, and the journal L'Opinió. The latter included Joan Lluhí as prominent figure. Nevertheless, Companys was elected as an executive member of ERC, representing the Partit Republicà Català. Thanks to the bonds between the Spanish labor movement and the Spanish trade union movement, the election of Companys to this position gave the ERC great prestige in left-wing public opinion, as it would otherwise have been regarded as a party of the progressive petty bourgeoisie.
Proclamation of Second Spanish Republic
In the 1931 Spanish local elections, the ERC won a surprise victory in Barcelona and other municipalities of Catalonia. After he learned the results, on 14 April, Companys, who was elected a city representative, and other ERC candidates together with the Party's leader Francesc Macià, decided to take over by surprise the office of mayor and entered the City Hall. After some dispute, the transitional Mayor of Barcelona was deposed, and Companys was proclaimed new mayor. Subsequently, he hung a tricolour Spanish Republican Flag from the City Hall's balcony and proclaimed the Republic. Shortly after, Francesc Macià proclaimed the Catalan Republic within the Federation of Iberian Republics, a project that was later abandoned after gaining the promise of regional devolution and the restitution of the Catalan Generalitat (as autonomous government) from the new Republican government.
After controlling the Barcelona City Hall, Macià ordered Companys to take the office of "Gobernador Civil" (civil governor) of the Barcelona Province, which at that time held considerable powers such as policing. It had been controlled by republican radicals during the proclamation of the republic. Macià probably wanted a less public office for Companys, whom he thought of as a political rival. Companys ran as a Barcelona provincial candidate in the December 1931 Spanish legislative election. After gaining a seat, he led the ERC representation and the Catalan minority group in the new Republican Parliament. He described his political objectives in Madrid: "We, the Catalan members of the Parliament, have come here not only to defend our Statute of Autonomy [law of self-government], and the fraternal and democratic understanding of the members of Parliament; but, also to participate in matters that affect the greatness of Spain: the Constitution, the agrarian reforms and social legislation". In 1932, Companys was elected the first Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia.
Presidency of Catalonia and proclamation of Catalan State
After the death of Francesc Macià on 25 December 1933, who was presiding over the Generalitat of Catalonia, Companys was elected the successor President of the Generalitat by the Catalan Parliament. He appointed a new coalition government composed by the Republican Left of Catalonia and the other left-wing republican and catalanist parties. Under his presidency, the Parliament passed laws to improve the living conditions of the popular classes and the petite bourgeoisie. One example was the Crop Contracts Law, which protected the tenant farmers and granted them access to the land they were cultivating. The law increased tensions, however, after it was contested by the Regionalist League, and it provoked a legal dispute with the Spanish government led by Ricardo Samper. Meanwhile, the Generalitat established its own Court of Appeal (Tribunal de Cassació) and assumed executive powers in public order, according as the Statute of Autonomy stipulated.
On 6 October 1934, with the support of the Worker's Alliance and the pro-independence Escamots, Companys led a Catalan nationalist uprising. Companys proclaimed the Catalan State (Estat Català) within the "Spanish Federal Republic". The uprising was opposed by both the centrist and conservative Catalan representatives and the new centrist and right-wing republican government, led by Alejandro Lerroux. That government included ministers from the political party CEDA, which was considered by many left-wing sectors as nearly fascist. The attempt to form the Catalan state was seen as an attempt at a coup d'état, as Companys had revolted against the newly appointed center-right republican government and joined the Asturias miners' attempt at revolution. Companys asked Manuel Azaña, who happened to be in Barcelona during the events, to lead the newly proclaimed Spanish Republican government, but Azaña rejected the proposition. The proclamation was suppressed by the Spanish army, and the Catalan government members were arrested. Companys was sentenced to 30 years in prison.