What's Going on in Catalonia? By Ramiro Ledesma Ramos
We repeat our question, which we asked in our previous issue, because in the last week the intensity of Spaniards’ worries and fears has been greater than the rate at which they have received news. The Spanish people unanimously demand that what is happening and what threatens to happen in Catalonia be explained to them in the clearest language possible. Three ministers of the Provisional Government have visited Catalonia recently. Upon their return, they have made very vague declarations — veritable babbling that no one has understood. Three days ago, we traveled many kilometers throughout Spain. We were very moved by the many groups of Hispanics we saw huddled around their radios, anxiously awaiting news about the Catalan problem.
Today, all of Spain looks at Catalonia and sees it under the control of that minority of absurd men that inevitably emerges in societies all over the world. The rest of Spain must immediately and heroically intervene in the Catalan question, for two reasons. First, for the sake of saving our national unity, which the Catalan question imperils in a mediocre manner. Secondly, for the sake of saving Catalonia itself, a part of Spain, which is also in danger while it is in the hands of this traitorous minority. We do not question the clear revolutionary authority of the Provisional Government. We said as much eight days ago. Neither does all of Spain. That is why Spain today implores its provisional Government to rapidly begin to intervene near the bosom of the rebellious minority in Catalonia.
It is well that all pertinent matters be brought before the constituent Cortes [Parliament]. Soon they will vote on and approve whatever needs to be voted and approved. The supreme national interest — including the revolutionary interest — does not permit the consolidation of de facto situations so anomalous and disconcerting as this one that sprouts in Catalonia.
We are in possession of myriad newspaper clippings that document the Catalanists’ undisclosed ambitions. If the contents of these clippings were spread throughout Spain, the rebels in Catalonia would feel this very day the energetic pressure of the Hispanic people.
It is known that the separatists are promoting their ideas in Valencia and the Baleares, claiming that this three regions make up the future Catalan nation. Will Spaniards allow the imperial, integrationist idea that constitutes their very lifeblood as a people to be wrested away from them?
This is no time for provincial local considerations, but rather for loyalty to the great historical nationalities. The idea of Spain should be beyond debate or dispute, and the Provisional Government of the Republic cannot afford to delay its decisive word for even one minute. Out with that spectacle at the Spanish University of Barcelona! Out with the [Catalan] Government of [Francesc] Macià!
And we energetically demand: Discipline and revolutionary patriotism on all fronts!
— Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, in La Conquista del Estado, no. 7 (4/25/1931)
Pelayo Flecha's Gazette : What's Going on in Catalonia?, by Ramiro Ledesma Ramos
