Suchergebnisse

El político catalanista Francesc Cambó fue el presidente de la Compañía Hispano Americana de Electricidad (CHADE), la más importante inversión española en el extranjero y la principal empresa eléctrica de América Latina. El éxito económico de esta empresa, que permitió a Cambó enriquecerse de forma notable, se debió en gran medida a la influencia lograda en Argentina gracias a la corrupción política. Cambó, que conocía los procedimientos utilizados por su compañía -gastos confidenciales a periodistas y funcionarios, sobornos a políticos, ventajas fiscales, etc.-, nunca condenó estas prácticas, aunque le desagradaban. Consideraba que la corrupción era una enfermedad muy difícil de curar y que ante ella debía actuarse con discreción y prudencia, evitando siempre el escándalo público. Él mismo y sus biógrafos han ocultado que en 1945 fue acusado de cooperación con el cohecho y defraudación a la Administración Pública y que logró evitar ser procesado gracias a la intervención de Juan Domingo Perón. Sus responsabilidades en la gestión corruptora de la CHADE sin duda contribuyeron a que el ambicioso «político nuevo» de principios de siglo XX acabara convertido en un acaudalado conservador, incapaz de asumir ningún riesgo político. ; The Catalan politician Francesc Cambó was the president of the Hispanic American Electricity Company (CHADE), the most important foreign Spanish investment of its time, and the principal electric company in Latin America. The economic success of CHAD was largely due to the influence achieved by the company in Argentina through political corruption. As a result, Cambó became remarkably rich. He was fully aware of the procedures used by his company, such as secretly paying expenses to journalists and officials, bribes to politicians, tax advantages, etc. Although he disliked these practices, he never condemned them. He considered corruption a very difficult disease to treat and, therefore, it required discretion, prudence, and, above all, the avoidance of public scandal. Cambó and his biographers intentionally hid that in 1945 he was accused of bribery and defrauding the public administration, although he managed to avoid prosecution due to the personal intervention of Juan Domingo Perón. The responsibility of Cambó -an ambitious «new politician» of the early twentieth century- in the corrupt management of CHADE undoubtedly led him to become a wealthy conservative, unable to assume any political risk.

This article focuses on the action of the Catalan deputies in the Spanish parliament during the First World War. It analyses the measures of pressure they developed in relation to social and economic consequences of the conflict, the evolution of their position in the debate between pro-allies and pro-central powers, as well as the parliamentary speeches about political and economic autonomy for Catalonia. Although the option of deciding on neutrality was widespread among Catalans, there was no unitary position. On the contrary, Catalan politicians joined for other reasons. They wanted to protect not only from the negative impact of war and profit from its benefits, but also they wish to take advantage of the situation to make visible, in an international sphere, their willingness to obtain the political autonomy for their region. Despite Catalan demands for autonomy found no concessions, the international context and the requests that had been made helped to visualize the so-called Catalan question. The Spanish Congress and the country on the whole were completely weakened after the war. However, the expectation for change and regeneration was closer than ever as the First World War had accelerated the crisis of the political system of the Restoration