page_title: Francoist Catalonia
section_title: Catalan Francoists
hierarchical_section_title: Francoist Catalonia / Catalan Francoists
caption_attribution_description: English: From the DoD site: Left side, front view of International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch (Middle). He was visiting the Sydney International Shooting Centre on September 23rd, 2000, where US Army Sergeant First Class James Graves (Not shown) won the Olympic Bronze Medal in the Skeet Competition during the 2000 games.
context_page_description: Francoism in Catalonia was established within Francoist Spain between 1939 and 1975, following the Spanish Civil War and post-war Francoist repression. Francisco Franco's regime replaced Revolutionary Catalonia after the Catalonia Offensive at the end of the war. The dictatorship in Catalonia complemented the suppression of democratic freedoms with the repression of Catalan culture. Its totalitarian character and its unifying objectives meant the imposition of a single culture and a single language, Castillian. The regime was specifically anti-Catalan, but this did not stop the development of a Catalan Francoism that was forged during the war and fed by victory.
  Francoism meant, in Catalonia as with the rest of Spain, the cancellation of democratic freedoms, the prohibition and persecution of political parties, the closure of the free press, and the elimination of leftist organisations. In addition, the Statute of Autonomy and its associated institutions were abolished, and the Catalan language and culture were systematically persecuted, at least to begin with, in public and even initially in private.
context_section_description: In Catalonia there were many intellectuals (painters, writers, journalists, etc.) who collaborated with the Franco regime, receiving in return the approval and favour of the regime. Some of them were in the conservative Lliga Regionalista, later Lliga de Catalunya, led by Francesc Cambó. Such people included Salvador Dalí, Josep Pla and Juan Antonio Samaranch, for example.
  In 1936, André Breton expelled Dalí from his surrealistic circle due to his fascist tendencies, leaving the artist as one of the few intellectuals who supported Franco after the Spanish Civil War. In 1949, Dali returned to Catalonia, after a stay in the US, with the approval of Franco's government, who used it as a political propaganda, which was widely criticized by many intellectuals and progressives.
  Josep Pla, a moderate Catalanist, was elected deputy of the Commonwealth of Catalonia for the Regionalist League in his hometown, Alt Empordà, in 1921. After exile in Rome, he returned to Barcelona in January 1939, alongside Manuel Aznar and other Francoist journalists, to take over the editing of the newspaper La Vanguardia.
  Juan Antonio Samaranch, a member of the FET y de las JONS from a very young age, began his political career on the Barcelona City Council when he was appointed Sports Councilor in 1955. Under the Franco regime, he held the positions of Attorney General in Corts, National Delegate for Sports and President of the Diputació de Barcelona until he arrived at the International Olympic Committee Presidency (1980-2001). In 1985 he received the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia and in 1988 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Sports. He died on April 21, 2010 in Barcelona and his body was displayed in a chapel in the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya at the same time that a mass was held, which brought together 4,000 people in the Barcelona Cathedral officiated by the Archbishop of Barcelona, Lluís Martínez Sistach. However, his last few years were noteworthy for criticisms of his ambiguous position with respect to the Franco regime.
  Among the Francoist mayors were Josep Maria de Porcioles in Barcelona and Josep Gomis in Montblanc. Josep Maria de Porcioles (1904-1993), was mayor of Barcelona during the Franco regime. The municipal administration of Porcioles was generally not coherent from a budgetary and political point of view, apart from carrying out uncontrolled urban development. In 1983, during the mayorlty of Pasqual Maragall, Porcioles was awarded the gold medal of the city of Barcelona; Maragall had been a high official of the city council during the Porcioles era. During his funeral he was honored, among other authorities, by Maragall, as a Catalan figure, which was controversial.
  Josep Gomis i Martí of Montblanc (1934), had broad and prolific career: twenty-five years at the Montblanc Town Hall, sixteen as mayor (1964-1980), provincial deputy, Solicitor in the Cortes, President of the Provincial Council of Tarragona (1980–88), Member of the Cortes for the Convergència i Unió (CiU), (1982 and 1986 legislatures), Government Minister of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1988–92), delegate of the Government of the Generalitat in Madrid (1993-2002) and president of the Social Council of the Rovira i Virgili University (2002–04). On July 29, 1996 he was named "favourite son" of the town of Montblanc.
  FC Barcelona did not escape the regime; there were many presidents who agreed with the regime. Among them were Narcís de Carreras who was part of the Lliga Catalana and was a collaborator of Francesc Cambó until 1939. Later, he was president of FC Barcelona (1968-1969) and La Caixa (1972-1980), Councillor of the City Council and a solicitor in the Cortes (1967-1971). In contrast, Josep Sunyol, also president of FC Barcelona and a prominent militant of the Republican Left of Catalonia, was shot on August 6, 1936, in the Sierra de Guadarrama without trial by Francoist troops. Sunyol had been detained, along with journalist Ventura Virgili, a chauffeur and an officer, when they visited the front. As a tribute, a Barça club 
caption: Joan Antoni Samaranch
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