Companys, Lluís
Companys, Lluís
(lyo͞oēs` kŏmpä`nēs), 1883–1940, Spanish politician; Catalan nationalist leader. In 1933 he was elected president of autonomous CataloniaCatalonia, Catalan Catalunya, Span. Cataluña, autonomous community (1990 pop. 6,165,638), NE Spain, stretching from the Pyrenees at the French border southward along the Mediterranean Sea.
..... Click the link for more information. to succeed Francesc MaciàMacià, Francesc
, 1859–1933, Spanish politician, Catalan nationalist leader. An army officer, he joined the separatist movement in Catalonia and was elected to the Cortes in 1907.
..... Click the link for more information. . Pressed by extremists, in 1934 he declared Catalonia fully independent within the Spanish republic, but this separatist revolt failed and Companys was jailed. The leftist electoral victory of 1936 brought him back to power, and he headed the Catalan government throughout the civil war. In 1939 he fled to France, but German occupation forces returned him to Spain in 1940, and he was executed.