Francesc Macià

Francesc Macià i Llussà (Catalan: [frənˈsɛzɡ məsiˈa]; 21 September 1859 – 25 December 1933) was a Catalan politician who served as the 122nd[2] President of Catalonia and formerly an officer in the Spanish Army.[3][4]

This article uses Catalan naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Macià and the second or maternal family name is Llussà.
Francesc Macià i Llussà
122nd[1] President of the Government of Catalonia
In office
14 December 1932 – 25 December 1933
PresidentNiceto Alcalá-Zamora
Preceded byJosep de Vilamala
Succeeded byLluís Companys
3rd Acting President of the Catalan Republic
In office
14 April 1931 – 17 April 1931
Preceded byBaldomer Lostau
In 1873
Succeeded byLluís Companys
In 1934
Acting President of the Generalitat de Catalunya
In office
17 April 1931 – 14 December 1932
Preceded byHimself
As Acting President of the Catalan Republic
Succeeded byHimself
As President of the Generalitat de Catalunya
Personal details
Born(1859-09-21)21 September 1859
Vilanova i la Geltrú, Catalonia, Kingdom of Spain
Died25 December 1933(1933-12-25) (aged 74)
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spanish Republic
NationalitySpanish
Political partyEstat Català
Republican Left of Catalonia
Spouse(s)Eugènia Lamarca i de Mier

Life

Francesc Macià i Llussà was born in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Catalonia. Shortly after the death of his father, when he was 16, he entered the Military Academy of Guadalajara to join the Corps of Engineers of the Spanish Army, specializing himself in bridges, railways and telegraphs. He requested to be transferred to Cuba but he was send several times to Barcelona, Madrid or Seville, ascending from telegrapher to captain. As an officer in the Spanish army, he positioned himself in favor of its modernization. He achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1887 he was transferred to Lleida, where he met his wife, Eugènia Lamarca, daughter of Agapit Lamarca, with whom he had three children, Joan, Eugènia and Maria.

On November 25, 1905, some Spanish army officers, in retaliation for a joke of the satirical Catalan journal ¡Cu-Cut!, assaulted and destroyed the offices of the magazine, as well as the ones of the Catalanist journal La Veu de Catalunya. The Spanish Government responded by creating a Law of jurisdictions for the repression of crimes against the homeland and against the army, which caused various political groups to unite to form Solidaritat Catalana (Catalan Solidarity). Macià publicly condemned the military's action. As a result, his officials transferred him to Cantabria.[5]

He ran as a member of Catalan Solidarity in the election of April 21, 1907 for Barcelona and Les Borges Blanques districts, where his family came from. The resounding victory of this formation (41 of the 44 deputies of Catalonia) took him to the Cantabrian town of Santoña. He was re-elected deputy in 1914, 1916, 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1923. From the Spanish Parliament, he initially defended the regeneration of Spain, however, during his last years as a politician in Madrid, he moved from Catalan autonomist to left-wing independentist positions.[6]

In 1922, Macià founded the independentist party Estat Català.[7]

In 1926 he attempted an insurrection against the Spanish dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. This uprising, the aim of which was to achieve the independence of Catalonia, was based in Prats de Molló (Roussillon, southern France).[8] He was arrested in France for this and was convicted and sentenced to two months in jail and a fine of 100 francs. Macià left France for Brussels in March 1927. In April 1930 he returned to Spain after being pardoned; he was exiled again but returned once more in February 1931.[9]

In 1931, after the elections that caused the exile of Alfonso XIII of Spain and gave the local majority to his party Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC), a few hours before the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in Madrid, from the balcony of the Palace of the Generalitat (then the seat of the Provincial Deputation of Barcelona), announced the "Catalan Republic, expecting that the other peoples of Spain constitute themselves as republics, in order to establish the Iberian Confederation". Macià was appointed as its acting president. Three days later, the government of the new Spanish Republic, sent three ministers (Fernando de los Ríos, Lluís Nicolau d'Olwer and Marcel·lí Domingo) to Barcelona to negotiate with Macià and the Catalan government. Macià reached an agreement with the ministers, in which the Catalan Republic was renamed Generalitat of Catalonia, becoming an autonomous government inside the Spanish Republic. Macià was the President of the Generalitat from 1932, after the first Catalan parliamentary election, until his death in December 1933.

Death

Macià died on 25 December 1933 in Barcelona. His funeral caused a massive demonstration of grief.[5] His remains rest in the Plaça de la Fe, the Montjuïc Cemetery, in Barcelona's Montjuïc hill.

Documentation

Part of his personal collection, which consists of documentation image about the president travels throughout Catalonia and family snapshots, is preserved in the National Archive of Catalonia. They are a repository of Mrs. Teresa Peyrí i Macià. The fund contains documents generated and received by Francesc Macià, personal and family documents, correspondence from the period before the Second Spanish Republic (until April 1931) and documentation produced primarily in terms of its political activity. The fund brings together documents relating to his conduct before being named president of the Government of Catalonia (1907-1931): As a Member of Parliament (speeches, proclamations, and conference reports) on Catalan State (organization, reports, proclamations, calls, publications, etc.), on Catalan Army (constitution, rules and organization, information mapping and geographic pathways) and on the corresponding period in the Directory of General Primo de Rivera. Finally, there is the collection of photographs, most made during his presidency.

Another part of Macià's personal archive consists of correspondence written to/by Joan Agell, documents of Centre Català in New York, diverse documentation and press clippings.[10] It is in the Pavelló de la República CRAI Library at the University of Barcelona.

See also

References
  1. "Presidents of the Generalitat". catalangovernment.eu. Generalitat de Catalunya. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  2. "Presidències i presidents de la Generalitat de Catalunya" [List of Presidents] (PDF). Història de la Generalitat de Catalunya i dels seus presidents vol. III (in Catalan). Government of Catalonia. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 9, 2018.
  3. "Francesc Macià i Llussà". Catalan Encyclopaedia. March 22, 2014.
  4. Masanés, Cristina (October 2009). "Els orígens del mite". Sapiens (in Catalan). 84.
  5. Esculies, Joan (October 2012). "El cavaller de l'ideal". Sàpiens (in Catalan). Barcelona. 121: 22–28. ISSN 1695-2014.
  6. Esculies, Joan. "Macià, el paradigma dels conversos a l'independentisme". Ara, 25-26 December 2013, p. 12.
  7. Esculies, Joan (December 2013). "Macià, el paradigma dels conversors a l'independentisme". Ara (in Catalan): 12.
  8. "Qui va trair Macià?" by Jordi Finestres and Giovanni Cattini, Sàpiens volume 84 (October 2009)
  9. "Bowers Sends Condolences". The New York Times. December 26, 1933. p. 15. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  10. Macià's personal archive
Political offices
Preceded by
Himself, as Acting President of the Government of Catalonia, but in 1716, Josep de Vilamala		 Presidents of the Government of Catalonia
1932–1933		 Succeeded by
Lluís Companys
Preceded by
Himself, as Acting President of the Catalan Republic		 Acting Presidents of the Government of Catalonia
1931–1932		 Succeeded by
Himself, as Presidents of the Government of Catalonia
Preceded by
Baldomer Lostau, in 1873		 Acting President of the Catalan Republic
1931		 Succeeded by
Himself, as Acting Presidents of the Government of Catalonia, but Lluís Companys, as Acting President of the Catalan Republic, in 1934
Party political offices
Preceded by
New title		 President of Estat Català
1922–1933		 Succeeded by
Josep Dencàs i Puigdollers
Preceded by
New title		 President of ERC
1931–1933		 Succeeded by
Lluís Companys
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