The reconstitution of political Catalanism, 1939-1975

This article's aim is to analyse the transformations in political Catalanism that took place during the Franco dictatorship (1939–75). The two pre-Civil War forces of Catalanism, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and the Lliga Regionalista, lost their hegemony during the course of the dictatorship. At the regime's end, new forces emerged in Catalonia and, in the terrain of nationalism, Convergéncia i Unió became representative of the changes in Catalan political culture that occurred under Franco. By looking closely at the Catalan nationalist opposition to Franco, we will see how this transformation came about