Five of them were imprisoned at some point in their lives, two were disqualified by the courts for political reasons, six went into exile-one of whom was only president in exile-and one, President Lluís Companys, was imprisoned by the Spanish Republic from 1934 to 1936 and exiled in 1939, then handed over to Spain by the Nazis and shot by Franco’s regime. In this sense, it is relevant to look at the fates of the 13 presidents of the autonomous community of Catalonia since 1931 in order to better understand that relations between Catalonia and Spain have never been easy. While they might not be normal in Europe, they are in Spain. Soon thereafter, the President of the Catalan Assembly, Carme Forcadell, went to jail, and the President of the Government, Carles Puigdemont, went into exile-two events that are by no means normal in democratic Europe. The images of Spanish police beating up citizens voting in the referendum on self-determination on October 1st, 2017-smashing polling stations, and taking away ballot boxes-went around the world and put Catalonia back in the headlines everywhere. With the exception of 1931, the Spanish response to Catalan politics has been to refuse to talk and instead resort to repression. Finally, on October 27th, 2017, there was another declaration of independence, in an episode that, despite the appearances, is far from over. This was the beginning of the Francoist insurgency. It did so again in October 1934, provoking a harsh repression that led to the imprisonment of the Catalan government until the victory of the Popular Front in 1936. It did so again on April 14th, 1931, but within hours it became an autonomous region of Spain for the first time. It did so in 1810, but was incorporated into the Napoleonic Empire two years later and then returned to Spain in 1814. During this time, Catalonia has made several attempts to declare independence. You may follow him on Twitter crisis between Spain and Catalonia is not new, as there has been a political and institutional conflict between the two nations since at least the eighteenth century. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the European Journalism Center, based in Maastricht. He has written several books on Catalan and international politics. After working for many years as an international reporter, he founded VilaWeb in 1995, one of the first digital newspapers in Europe.
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