The Catalan coup d'etat was an unsuccessful takeover of power in autonomous Catalonia, planned by the independentist party Estat Català. The conspirators intended to declare the total independence of Catalonia as a state neutral in the Spanish Civil War, and to marginalize all non-aligned political groupings, especially the Anarchists. They counted on party militias and Catalan army and security units, infiltrated by the Estat Català militants. The coup was planned in November, as the plotters assumed that the central Republican government, absorbed by the battle of Madrid, would not be able to take action. The plot failed because of the Anarchist counter-action, which exposed the scheme and some of its leaders. In pre-emptive strike Generalitat services detained a few of the conspirators; the others fled to France. Estat Català was sidelined, while CNT-FAI ensured its dominant position in Catalonia. The attempted coup remains a poorly researched and rather unknown episode.
Background
Since the late 19th century along traditional political groupings – Conservatives, Liberals, Carlists, Republicans – there were new currents emerging in Catalonia: Socialists, Communists, Anarchists and Catalan nationalists. The last two of these were getting increasingly popular. Their social basis partially overlapped, though the Anarchists catered mostly to urban proletariat, while the Catalanists tended to gain dynamics among the mid-lower strata. While competing in terms of popular mobilization, they nevertheless pursued the same anti-system and left-wing course. Following the fall of the monarchy in 1931 various currents of Catalanism converged in the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC), the centre-left nationalist and federative party structure under the leadership of the left-wing independentist Francesc Macià, which dominated the autonomous Catalan parliament. The Anarchists, who by default boycotted any electoral action, focused rather on expansion of their nationwide trade union, Confederación Nacional de Trabajo (CNT). Their structures actively engaged against the state and in late 1933 managed to mount insurgent action in some parts of Catalonia.
In October 1934 parts of Northern Spain were engulfed by revolutionary turmoil; the Generalitat de Catalunya took part of the revolution and declared a "Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic". The Anarchists did nothing to support their cause; instead, laboured to introduce their own anarcho-syndicalist communes. The ERC-controlled autonomous government of the Generalitat cracked down on anarchist structures;some scholars believe that in October 1934 the Generalitat president, representative of mainstream ERC Lluis Companys was manipulated by radical nationalists of Estat Català, chiefly by Josep Dencàs and Miquel Badia, see Abel Paz, Durruti in the Spanish Revolution, Edinburgh 2007, , p. 339 following outbursts of violence mutual aversion between the two was already bordering hostility. During the general elections of February 1936 the Anarchists hesitantly decided not to oppose the Popular Front alliance, which included ERC, but soon truce gave way to tension. In April the Anarchist hit-squad murdered Miquel Badia, who in 1934 engineered and executed the repressive anti-CNT campaign. The Catalanists themselves got increasingly divided over policy towards the central government and the radical Left. Many lambasted Generalitat for appeasement and demanded a more decisive stand. In May 1936 Estat Català (EC), a group which so far formed part of ERC, left the federation.
Estat Català Estat Català was a Catalan nationalist organization which emerged in the early 1920s, distinct from other Catalanist groupings due to its extreme anti-establishment position and left-wing social outlook. Since the early 1930s EC was getting increasingly radical and adopted a militant stand; its uniformed paramilitary militia, the Escamots, were outlawed following a series of violent episodes. In the mid-1930s EC founded ERC alongside other Republican parties and formed its radical, left wing. Having left Esquerra in May 1936 the party regained its fully independent status and became the key vehicle of revolutionary Catalan nationalism. It was soon merged with two other, smaller and equally radical parties of Catalanist left: Nosaltres Sols! and Partit Nacionalista Català. The command layer of the united organization was formed by the EC leader Josep Dencas, the former NS! chief, an ideologue Manuel Blasi, and the former president of PNC Josep Maria Xammar. The integration process was still ongoing when in July 1936 Spain was rocked by the military coup d'etat.
Many EC members actively resisted the military rebels; during the fightings they seized large quantities of arms. In the already revolutionary ambience the party moved to new headquarters in the Oro de Rhin restaurant by the Gran Via, launched a new daily bulletin, the Diari de Barcelona and commenced massive recruitment to its militia ranks. Representatives of EC joined numerous inter-party bodies competing for power, especially Comitè de Milícies Antifeixistes; however, the party did not enter the coalition Generalitat government. Relations with the Anarchists, who in aftermath of the failed military coup emerged as the dominant political grouping in Catalonia, remained tense. In August the CNT commando tried to plunder the main EC office and their representatives in the government demanded that Dencàs, along the murdered Badia blamed for anti-Anarchist violence of 1934, be detained. By September he fled the country, fearing for his life. The party leadership was assumed by its former secretary, Joan Torres-Picart.Torres-Picart was acceptable to all 3 factions forming the party: the historical Estat Català, Nosaltres Sols! and PNC, Enric Ucelay-Da Cal, La ley de silencio: el „complot nacionalista” contra Companys, noviembre-diciembre de 1936, [in:] Enric Ucelay-Da Cal, Arnau González i Vilalta (ed.), Contra Companys, 1936. La frustración nacionalista ante la revolución, Valencia 2012, , p. 131
Jockeying for position
In the summer of 1936 the Generalitat decided to form a Catalan army, the People's Army of Catalonia. Supported by most parties – though not by the Anarchists – the government started to form first units. Estat Català remained very active in the process; its people dominated 3 battalions to be deployed along the French border and known as Milícies Pirinenques (MP). Their officer corps was very much composed of militants related earlier to OMNS, Organizació Militar Nosaltres Sols, a cadre military section of Nosaltres Sols!. During the fall first MP sub-units indeed started to take over control points on the Pyrenean border with France; not in few locations skirmishes with local Anarchist units, so far manning the posts, ensued. The own EC party initiative was raising a large, 700-men battalion Columna Volant Catalana; it was originally to be sent to the Aragon front, but did not enter into action; its sub-units were stationed across various locations of the Lleida province. Other party militia units were being reorganized by the former Escamots commander, Joan Cornudella.
Since the late summer of 1936 the EC party press was getting increasingly explicit about the need to "Catalanize" the ongoing revolution; decreasingly enigmatic articles suggested that the process was about getting Catalan independence declared and about having all non-aligned political groupings, principally the Anarchists, marginalized. Xammar talked to president Companys about breaking the Anarchist domination in the region. He also demanded that EC people get nominated to high positions in the Generalitat security; Companys did not seem interested. The second-in-command person in the autonomous Catalan structures, the prime minister and the parliament speaker Joan Casanovas, was more tractable; the EC member in the 1920s, later he remained in the ERC mainstream. He started to voice publicly about the need to reinforce the state and assume responsibility for bold action,Josep María Pascual, Un complot desconocido, [in:] Enric Ucelay-Da Cal, Arnau González i Vilalta (ed.), Contra Companys, 1936. La frustración nacionalista ante la revolución, Valencia 2012, , p. 67 which was broadly taken for a hardly veiled criticism of vacillating Generalitat policy. These declarations triggered open conflict between Companys and Casanovas; in September the latter was dismissed from premiership. His seat was taken by a close Companys associate, Josep Tarradellas.
Gear-up to action
Historians assume that since early October 1936 the EC leaders started to discuss a violent takeover of power in autonomous Catalonia, possibly by means of a coup d'etat. Their key asset were armed units controlled by the party, including the militia, the forces of Columna Volant and the MP battalions; some were supposed to enter into action in Barcelona, and some were expected to seize power in other cities and towns of the region. The conspiracy network was being developed within local administrative or revolutionary institutions. Xammar negotiated with acquiescent officials in various committees in Northern Catalonia about a would-be joint action against the Anarchists. The conspirators assumed that the Generalitat security would at least remain passive; since early October the Commissar of Public Order, the de facto police chief in Catalonia,Francisco J. Romero Salvadó, Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, London 2013, , p. 123 was a former EC militant Andreu Revertés. Thought the Anarchists protested his nomination, it was enforced by Companys, the decision related to some private links between the two.
The EC envoys Josep Maria Batista i Roca and Nicolau Rubió i Serralach sounded the French and British diplomats in Spain about would-be recognition of independent Catalonia; outcome of these conversations is not clear. Most likely the same issue was discussed with Mussolini envoys. Another Estat Català delegate Vicenç Borrell travelled to Brussels to speak to Francesc Cambó, the historic leader of right-wing Catalanists. However, Cambó did not seem interested; at the time he was anticipating a swift triumph of the Nationalists. Since early November EC scaled up their radical, independentist propaganda campaign. During numerous rallies Borrell, Cornudella, Xammar, and Torres-Picart vehemently criticised irresolute Generalitat policy. To much surprise, one of their meetings hosted Casanovas; in belligerent tone he declared that the time for bold action was near and spoke with contempt about the Catalan parliament, the body he still presided. Casanovas received numerous adhesion messages, including many from various EC militia units.
Climax