Establishment of the Statute of Autonomy and the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC)

The political conditions which permitted the creation of a Catalan state in 1931 reflected the circumstances of the Spanish government during the pre-Francoist period as well as the desires of the people of Catalonia. The Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, ‘The Republican Left of Catalonia’), a political party headed by Catalonian president Francesc  Macià, had just won a successful local electoral victory alongside other left-wing parties [Guibernau, 2004: 85-86; Gencat, 2018; “Francesc Macià,” 2019]. Right after this regional electoral victory, the Catalan Republic was declared. Soon after the declaration by Macià that the Catalan State was “a state of the Iberian Federation,” Spanish lawmakers approached the Catalan government to negotiate over its place in the newly proclaimed Second Spanish Republic. These negotiations culminated in the 1930 Pact of San Sebastián and the 1932 Statute of Núria, which each solidified the autonomy of Catalonia under the confederal umbrella of Spain [Gencat, 2018; Phillips, W.D. & Phillips, C.R., 2010: 246]. Fueled by increased Catalan nationalist desires, the 1932 Statute of Autonomy, known as the “Estatut d’Autonomia” in Catalan, was passed by referendum with overwhelming approval [Guibernau, 2004: 30; Narotzky, 2019: 38.