Bases de Manresa
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The Bases for the Catalan Regional Constitution (in Catalan: Bases per a la Constitució Regional Catalana, Spanish: Bases para la Constitución Regional Catalana), better known as the Manresa Bases (Bases de Manresa), is the document presented as a draft Catalan regional constitution for a paper by the Unió Catalanista to the council of representatives of Catalanist associations,[1] which met in Manresa (Barcelona) on 25 and 27 March 1892 at the initiative of the Regionalist League of Catalonia. The Bases de Manresa are often considered to be the "birth certificate of political Catalanism", at least that of conservative roots.[2]
In 1887 the Centre Català underwent an acute crisis as a result of the split between the two currents that made it up, one more left-wing and federalist, led by Valentí Almirall, and the other more Catalanist and conservative, grouped around the newspaper La Renaixensa.[3] The latter current had produced an important work published in 1878 under the title Los Fueros de Cataluña (The Charters of Catalonia), authored by Josep Coroleu and Josep Pella i Forgas. After a statement that "from the splendid variety with which Providence has graciously endowed Catalonia has sprung the characteristic genius of her children" —"her fierce liberty, her practical sense"— the ancient laws that governed the Principality of Catalonia are explained, organised in articles, as if they were a Constitution, accompanied by long digressions.[4]
The first article states: "The Catalan nation is the gathering of the peoples who speak the Catalan language. Its territory comprises: Catalonia, with the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne; the Kingdom of Valencia; the Kingdom of Majorca". The conservative nature of the work is evident, for example, in Article 51, which states that "only citizens who are heads of families have the right to appoint and be appointed" to the popular arm, since the Cortes will be of a statal nature, or in Article 39, which states: "Since the religion of the Catalans is Catholic, apostolic and Roman, it is not licit for any layman to discuss publicly or privately about its dogmas". It also demanded that military service be carried out in Catalonia and that "only Catalans born in the Principality and not those naturalised by privilege who are in full enjoyment of their citizenship may obtain ecclesiastical benefits and offices in Catalonia and exercise jurisdiction, public office, employment or military command in Catalonia and the Kingdom of Majorca". After denying the legitimacy of the Spanish constituent processes initiated in the Cortes of Cadiz, Coroleu and Pella concluded that Spain must repair "the imprescriptible rights of its peoples" oppressed by "the despotism of foreign dynasties [sic]" and the "Jacobinism of infamous politicians".[5]
The members of the conservative tendency left the Centre Catalá in November 1887 to found the Lliga de Catalunya, which was joined by the Centre Escolar Catalanista, an association of university students that included the future leaders of Catalan nationalism: Enric Prat de la Riba, Francesc Cambó and Josep Puig i Cadafalch. From that moment on, Catalan nationalist hegemony passed from the Centre Català to the Lliga, which during the Jocs Florals of 1888 presented a second memorial of wrongs to the Queen Regent in which, among other things, they asked "that the Catalan nation should once again have its free and independent general courts", voluntary military service, "the official Catalan language in Catalonia", education in Catalan, a Catalan Supreme Court and that the king should swear "in Catalonia his fundamental constitutions".[6]
In 1891 the Lliga de Catalunya proposed the formation of the Unió Catalanista, which immediately gained the support of Catalanist organisations and newspapers, and also of individuals —unlike what had happened four years earlier with the failed Gran Consell Regional Català proposed by Bernat Torroja, President of the Associació Catalanista de Reus, which was intended to bring together the presidents of Catalanist organisations and the editors of related newspapers—. In March 1892, the Unió held its first assembly in Manresa, attended by 250 delegates representing some 160 localities, where the Bases per a la Constitució Regional Catalana, better known as the Bases de Manresa, were approved.
The presidency was held by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Enric Prat de la Riba acted as secretary. The commission in charge of drafting the Bases was chaired by the priest Josep Torras i Bages.[7]