The Only Democratically Elected Leader Executed by Fascists

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]The only democratically elected European leader [music] executed by fascists was betrayed by the very democracy he tried to save. It's 1936, Barcelona, Spain.

[00:00:10]Lluís Companys becomes president of Catalonia's autonomous government as civil war erupts across the country. He fights Franco's fascists [music] for three brutal years, rallying Catalans to defend their language, their culture, their freedom. His speeches fill the squares of Barcelona. For a time, democracy holds. But Franco's forces close in and Companys flees to Paris in 1939. He lives quietly in exile, writing letters, meeting with other refugees.

[00:00:38]Then Hitler invades France in 1940 and the Gestapo comes hunting. They find Companys in his small apartment and arrest him as a gift for Franco. Spanish police drag him back to Barcelona [music] in chains. They torture him for months in prison, demanding he renounce Catalonia. He refuses every time. On October 15th, they march him to Montjuïc Castle. The firing squad raises their rifles. His last words echo across the courtyard. Long live Catalonia. The democrat who fought fascism was Lluís Companys.