Francesc Cambó i Batlle | |
---|---|
Born |
Verges, Spain |
September 2, 1876
Died | April 30, 1947 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
(aged 70)
Occupation | politician |
Francesc Cambó i Batlle (Catalan pronunciation: [fɾənˈsɛsk kəmˈbo]; September 2, 1876 – April 30, 1947) was a conservative Catalan politician, founder and leader of the autonomist party Lliga Regionalista. He was minister in several Spanish governments. He also supported a number of artistic and cultural endeavours, especially, the translation of Greek and Latin classical texts to Catalan.
Francesc Cambó was born in Verges in the comarca of Baix Empordà, Catalonia, Spain. He founded the Lliga Regionalista, a regionalist conservative party, in 1901. He was one of the first to propose an autonomous system of government for Catalonia, although, at the time, he only managed to achieve a fusion of the four provincial entities in Catalonia (Mancomunitat de Catalunya), with limited power. He was elected a member of the Spanish parliament several times, and was twice appointed minister in a Spanish conservative government.
His party, the Lliga, was the main representative of the Catalan regionalist or nationalist movement. However, in 1931, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, a left-wing nationalist party, won the elections and formed the new autonomous Catalan government (Generalitat of Catalonia).
During the Spanish Civil War, Cambò financed and supported the Rebel faction. in fear that a Republican victory would lead to a leftist Republic controlled by the Soviet Union.