The Generalitat de Catalunya in Exile (1939-1977)

In 1938, with the Civil War still raging, General Franco once again abolished the Generalitat as Philip V had done in 1716. The defeat of the Republic in 1939 forced the Catalan Government, the members of parliament and thousands of ordinary citizens into exile. At the request of the authorities of the Franco regime in Madrid, President Lluís Companys was captured in August 1940 in the small French town of La Baule by three agents of the German military police and delivered to the government of Franco. Judged in Montjuïc Castle in Barcelona by a military court and sentenced to death, he was executed on 15 October 1940.

President Josep Irla (1876-1958)

In view of the impossibility of Parliament meeting under these circumstances, Josep Irla, who had been elected President of the Parliament in October 1938, temporarily assumed the Presidency of the Generalitat in exile, until he resigned on 7 May 1954. The need to guarantee the continuity of the Presidency of the Generalitat in a situation in which the normal functioning of the institutions of Catalonia was impossible led to the election of a new president by the deputies of the Parliament of Catalonia. This meeting took place on 7 August 1954 in the Spanish Embassy in Mexico, one of the countries that had not recognised the political regime of Spain set up under Franco in 1939. Josep Tarradellas, to whom President Josep Irla had delegated his executive functions in 1952, was elected President. In 1937, Tarradellas had been the Chief Minister of the Catalan Government and Minister of Finance.

Tarradellas became the trustee of the Generalitat and was recognised as such by Catalan political forces.

President Josep Tarradellas (1899-1988)