Under its two presidents, Francesc Macià (1931–1933) and Lluís Companys (1934–1939), the Republican Generalitat, democratically led by the left, carried out a considerable task in different areas such as culture, health, education and civil law, despite the serious economic crisis that the Republic inherited, its social repercussions, the low fiscal autonomy granted by the Statute, and the political vicissitudes of the period. On December 25, 1933 Macià died and the Parliament appointed Companys as new president. Under his presidency, the Parliament continued to legislate in order to improve the living conditions of the popular classes and the petite bourgeoisie, approving laws like the Crop Contracts Law, which protected the tenant farmers and granted access to the land they were cultivating, but it was contested by the Regionalist League and provoking a legal dispute with the Spanish government led by Ricardo Samper, rising the tensions. Meanwhile, the Generalitat established its own Court of Appeal (Catalan: "Tribunal de Cassació") and assumed executive powers in public order. The Statute was suspended in 1934, due to an uprising in Barcelona on 6 October of that year. President Companys proclaimed the Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic, as a response to the accession of right-wing Spanish nationalist party CEDA to the government of the Republic. The CEDA was considered close to fascism and, therefore, they feared that it was the first step of this party to suppress the autonomy and take the power in Spain as Hitler and Dollfuss made in Germany and Austria. The proclamation was quickly suppressed by the Spanish army, and the Catalan Government members were arrested.