W cieniu trudnej przeszłości — kolejna odsłona kryzysu katalońskiego

The purpose of this article is to present the repression that hit Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War (abolition of autonomy and return to centralism, criminal sentences of a political nature), thus showing that prudent political choices, dialogue, and mediation in Catalonia are a matter of utmost importance. Historical experiences should not become an element of political games but motivate a debate between the central government and the autonomous region on reforming the state system and improving cooperation mechanisms. For Catalonia, the dictatorship meant cancelling all republican legislation and judicial decisions and the annulment as well as annulling the Catalan autonomy statute of 1932. Political structures returned to monarchist centralism, and the judicial system to the one in force in 1931. Repressions also hit the judicial system — all civil proceedings in which communist officers took part were suspended and actions carried out by officers from outside the Movimiento Nacional were annulled. Furthermore, military authorities cancelled a number of criminal sentences of a political and social character. Repressive actions were also directed to the area of education in order to eliminate from the system people who did not correspond to the interests of the dictatorship. The so-called “cleansing committees” were established, corresponding to individual levels of education and in practice determining the professional career of teachers. The escalation of Catalan separatist aspirations took place in autumn 2017. The regional government passed a law on the referendum and the so-called Transitional Act, defining the legal framework for the Republic of Catalonia to be created, following a positive result of voting in the referendum. The Spanish Constitutional Court suspended the aforementioned legal acts. In October 2017, the procedure of art. 155 of the Constitution, suspending the autonomy of the region, was carried out in Spain for the first time. Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling of 14 October 2019, imposing prison sentences for nine Catalan separatist leaders throughout Catalonia, violent riots, demonstrations, and vandalism occurred, and residents demanded amnesty for those convicted. The European judicial institutions undoubtedly played a special role in the context of the European Court of Justice’s on Catalan separatists and their status as a Member of the European Parliament. At the same time, it should be emphasised that the reaction to the Catalan case solely from the level of justice is only an ad hoc measure, and not aimed at developing constructive solutions to the conflict.