Barcelona, capital of three governments

By the autumn of 1937, the war and the revolution, as well as the balance among political and trade unión forces in the Republican rearguard, had taken a turn. The loss of territory in northern Spain and the events of May 1937 in Barcelona brought drastic political and organizational changes.

First of all, the government of the Basque Country, which was controlled by the Basque Natioanlist Party, moved to Barcelona. With its territory lost to the Francoist offensive and much of its political and social support in exile in France or under Francoist rule, its only option was maintain the structure of the government somewhere else. Barcelona, where the government of the Generalitat welcomed it with open arms, was the natural choice.

Until the end of the war, the Basque government remained highly active in three areas: culture, creating spaces where Basques in Barcelona could hold religious services, and overseeing the Basque soldiers, gudaris, who were fighting on a number of fronts. In Manuel Irujo, the Minister of Justice in the Republican government, the Basque nationalists also had a political figure of the first order.

At the same time, the government of the Republic, headed by Juan Negrín, moved from Valencia and set itself up in Barcelona with its entire administrative apparatus. Barcelona became the capital of three governments, as this photograph showing the presidents of Catalonia and the Basque Country and the Minister of Education of the Republic attending an event at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Deceber 1937 illustrates.

Its presence in the city brought logistical problems; it also made clear how, following the events of May 1937 and the subsequent months of military and revolutionary uncertainty, the Spanish government took increasing control of the war effort and other crucial areas of activity such as law and order, the border, the economy and public finances.

The co-existence among the Catalan, Basque, and Spanish governments was a fragile one, marked by reciprocal complaints, in a context of increasing scarcity of resources and the ongoing weakening of Republican military resistance. The authority of each government was not the only issue. At its heart lay a debate that would continue in exile. Did the competition among governments affect the war effort and contribute to military defeat? Did the Catalan and Basque nationalists not pull their weight? Or did the centralist measures of the Republican government undermine the resources of its Basque and Catalan counterparts.