Pep Cruanyes: ‘Spain refuses to recognize Companys’ assassination; we shall report it to the EU’

Seventy-five years ago today, the president of the Catalan government, Lluís Companys, was executed by the Spanish Franco regime in Barcelona’s Montjuïc Castle. A few days earlier, he had been captured by the Gestapo in France, where he had lived in exile since the end of the Spanish Civil War. After being handed over to the Spanish authorities, he was court-martialled without due process and executed.

As every year, to commemorate this fateful day, Catalonia today pays homage to the man who was its president. The Dignity Commission recently called on the Spanish government to condemn the assassination once and for all and to declare null and void the ruling against Companys, but it has yet to receive an answer. ‘We will report the Spanish government to the EU’, said the group’s president, Pep Cruanyes. Spain’s refusal to recognize Francoist crimes, says Cruanyes, puts it in breach of human rights as established by the United Nations, and therefore the group intends to take the case to the EU.

—France and Germany have apologized for their role in the detention of Companys, right?
—Yes. In an event organized by the Dignity Commission with the German and French consuls, which took place in 2008 at the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Catalan government in Barcelona), the two countries condemned the assassination of President Companys and accepted responsibility for collaborating in his arrest and deportation. The German consul said that it was the duty and obligation of both countries to recognize the crimes that their governments had committed—to recognize them, offer reparations, and apologize as many times as necessary—because the intention was for these crimes to be made clear to their citizens and especially to young people. Spain does just the opposite, hiding the facts and fostering misunderstandings and situations like the one we have today, where some are trivializing Franco and the facts of the repression.

—You yourself called on the government to condemn the assassination of Companys. Have you received an answer?
—We sent a letter on 5 October and have not yet received an answer. We are surprised by this.

—And what do you plan to do?
—To report Spain to the EU. We want to make it clear that Spain is in violation of its duties as required by international human rights treaties and in particular by several United Nations commissions. Therefore, we believe that Europe must be made aware of this fact and should require Spain to compensate the victims of Francoism and to declare null and void the sham trials that took place.

—But do you think that Europe can intervene in this matter?
—There is talk about the entry into the EU of states such as Turkey, and one of the issues that is delaying its entry is its human rights record. This means that, in Europe, there cannot be any country that violates human rights. Particularly one that violates them with respect to a central fact in the history of Europe, which is fascism. Present-day Europe was built to overcome the divisions that led to two World Wars, and Spain refuses to comply with active policies regarding the reparation of Francoist crimes.

—Can the United Nations demand that Spain uphold human rights?
—The United Nations unfortunately has no enforcement power, only the power to highlight failures of compliance in periodic reports before the delegates. For many years, at least since 2009, several UN commissions have required Spain to hold a series of events in observance of human rights. And it is always listed as a non-complier.

—That’s very serious.
—Furthermore, during the presentation in Geneva of the reports from the UN rapporteurs, the Spanish ambassador said that Spain had no intention of complying, that it would not implement any collective-memory policy and that it advised a policy of amnesia to ensure that people would forget the reality of the Franco dictatorship. This was said in front of the rapporteurs and all United Nations delegates.

—Today, President Artur Mas will testify before the Superior Court of Catalonia about his role in organizing the independence referendum held last November. Do you think that the fact that his court date coincides with the 75th anniversary of the death of Companys was intentional?
—Well, if it was done deliberately, it is a very serious offense. And if it was not done intentionally, the date should have been moved because it is clearly a very significant date. The issue here is that, precisely on the day that President Lluís Companys was executed, another Catalan president is called to testify, in a different context of course, but also for an alleged political offense, which in this case was to organize an election, a democratic vote.