After the electoral defeat of the independence movement a year ago, it makes perfect sense to ask how long President Salvador Illa's autonomist policy of "concord" with Spain will last and how it will end. Of course: concord according to his point of view, colonial docility and the Spanishization of the Catalans according to mine. But, regardless of their respective points of view, and without wishing to fall into a simplistic historical determinism, the truth is that we come from where we come from. And furthermore, considering recent history, we know what state we are talking about and what Spanish nation they want to assimilate us into.
Precisely these days, I was reading some articles by Antoni Rovira i Virgili published in The Bell of Grace, and I stumble upon one from January 16, 1915, entitled "Cambó's Speech," which helps us better understand this "where we come from," and where I think sooner or later we'll also end up. Rovira i Virgili refers to a lecture by Francisco Cambó the previous Sunday. Cambó, disappointed by the results of the reformist political strategy pursued in previous years by the League he himself led, reportedly stated that "within the current regime, the noble autonomist aspirations of the Catalan people cannot be satisfied." According to Rovira i Virgili, "ten years of meekness and dynastism have served the League politicians no good." He adds: "Centralist and monarchist Madrid has always been hostile to them, despite their persevering efforts."
Rovira i Virgili adds: "Is this due to a passing antipathy, to simple personal incompatibilities? No, no. In the eyes of Madrid politicians, the men of the League were Catalan and Catalanist. All their attitudes of compromise and harmony could not erase theirs from the similarity of the same thing that could erase ours from the earth. The oligarchs of Madrid. The regionalists attempted a kind of political disarmament. They laid down their arms, demanding peace with Madrid, something that other Catalans only believe possible through war.
To understand the historical context I refer to the biography of Cambó written by Heribert Barrera, Cambón (2011), and in the most recent by Borja de Riquer, Francisco Cambó. The Last Portrait (2022). In the autumn of 1914, the League parliamentarians had approved the Dato government's budget in exchange for the creation of "neutral zones," primarily thinking of the free port of Barcelona. But pressured by Castilian agrarian sectors, Dato reneged on his commitment. Borja de Riquer cites articles from the summer of 1915 that show the climate he had ended up in. Antonio Maura's eldest son, Gabriel, in "The error of Catalanism"accuses the League of limiting itself to"redeem the small homeland" and threatens: "If Catalonia does not apply itself to saving Spain, abandon all hope because it will perish with it.". And Cambó, disillusioned, responds with the pamphlet Regarding an article by Mr. Gabriel Maura i Gamazo: "Catalonia should have been concerned with strengthening its personality and moving towards the reconstruction of its political freedoms instead of going to the aid of the governing parties of Spain" (Borja de Riquer, pages 166-171).
This was the framework of Spain-Catalonia relations one hundred and ten years ago. This was how pacts were broken, and this was the climate of threat that was felt. And there is sufficient historical documentation to know that good words for Catalonia, in exchange for its national surrender, only arrive sporadically – and are then broken – when Spain resorts to false promises to guarantee the parliamentary majorities needed to save laws and governments. Among many others, one hundred and ten years ago with Dato, fifty years ago with the Constitution, thirty years ago with the last González and the first Aznar, or twenty years ago with theI will support Zapatero's approach to the reform of the Statute, then leaving Pasqual Maragall in the lurch. So why should we believe that the relationship between the autonomist Salvador Illa and the government of the juggler Pedro Sánchez will be any different now?
In his 1915 article, Rovira i Virgili ended with this reflection: "Finally, the regionalists have grown tired of bending their backs uselessly [he writes]shoulder]. The disdain and insults of the people of Madrid have finally become intolerable. Their sense of Catalan dignity has prevailed, and, standing up straight, they have said through Cambó: "Enough!" Well, when the current great promises have been broken, does anyone foresee that ERC, Junts, or the PSC itself will also have grown tired of bending their backs and will be disillusioned? And out of a sense of Catalan dignity, will President Salvador Illa also finally say "Enough!"
