Political Parties and Civil Pro-Independence Groups

Until very recently, the vast majority of Catalan nationalists have tended not to espouse separatist views (Conversi, 1997: 259–60). However, from as early as the end of the nineteenth century there have been identifiable but small groups of Catalans who did hope for independence (Llorens Vila, 2005; Rubiralta i Casas, 2004). Jordi Llorens Vila describes these groups as manifesting an emotional rather than a rational form of separatism, which coexisted with the development of Catalan autonomism and federalism but was unable to form itself into any kind of alternative political project (Llorens Vila, 2005). In terms of properly organised separatist groups, the first of any real political significance was Estat Català (Catalan State), founded in 1922 by Francesc Macià (Rubiralta i Casas, 2004: 11). During the political turmoil of the 1930s, which saw the brief existence of the Spanish Second Republic, two different declarations of Catalan sovereignty within a federalist framework were made. First, Macià (at that point the leader of ERC) took advantage of his party's win in the 1931 local elections to declare Catalonia a Free Republic which he hoped would become part of a Spanish confederation. However, once the Second Republic was established, Macià was forced to settle for autonomy. In 1934, his successor as President of Catalonia's Autonomous Government – Lluís Companys – responded to the victory of right-wing forces in the Spanish elections by declaring Catalonia a State within the Federal Republic of Spain, which led to his imprisonment and the suspension of Catalonia's autonomy.

During the Franco dictatorship (1939–75), Catalan nationalism was politically fragmented even though it was united in its opposition to the regime (Guibernau, 2004: 50–69). In the early years of the dictatorship, the Front Nacional de Catalunya (National Front of Catalonia) was formed in order to combine resistance to the Franco regime with a clear pro-independence agenda, but it was unable to achieve its goal of uniting all of Catalonia's separatist forces against the regime (Díaz i Esculíes, 2005). In the early 1970s, Catalan separatism regrouped itself around the recently-founded Partit Socialista d'Alliberament Nacional (Socialist Party for National Liberation) (Rubiralta i Casas, 2004: 133–4). It was also at this time that a small number of separatists decided to turn to armed struggle, beginning a phase of minor terrorist activity that was to continue until 1995 (Pagès i Blanch, 2005).

Any semblance of unity between pro-independence groups forged in the last days of the Franco regime did not last long, and fragmentation has been a perpetual