In a statement distributed to the press, the association Historiadors de Catalunya has denied the claims presented in the document signed by PSOE and Junts.

In the preamble of the agreement signed by the PSOE and Junts, socialism surrenders to independence and portrays a history of Catalonia told in a biased way and from the point of view of the secessionists.

The association Historiadors de Catalunya has echoed that fragment of the pact between Sánchez and Puigdemont and has denounced “the presentist, manipulated and false use of history […] that seeks in history in general and in 1714 in particular the origin of a supposed conflict between Spain and Catalonia and the loss of fictitious freedoms by force of arms”.

In the communiqué distributed to the press, the Catalan historians have denied the claims presented in the document signed by the PSOE and Junts. The historical corrections are the following:

• The War of Spanish Succession was a civil and dynastic conflict.
• King Felipe V swore and respected the Catalan institutions and laws in 1702.
• The pact signed by King Felipe V and the Catalan Cortes was broken unilaterally by the latter and with arms in 1706.
• After the rebellion was defeated in 1714 and according to the law, the monarch had the right to govern the rebellious province as he wished.
• The Nueva Planta Decrees did not abolish Catalan.
• The laws replaced by the Nueva Planta Decree of 1716 were feudal, oligarchic and even racist, as stated in Chapter XVI of the Constitutions of 1706, which ordered the expulsion of gypsies from Catalonia with sentences of ten years in the galleys for adult males and one hundred lashes for women and children.
• The Bourbon administration and its new legislation established the basis for economic and demographic growth in Catalonia after two centuries of decadence.
• The new Bourbon dynasty improved the economy in general and trade with America in particular, benefiting textile manufacturing and the port of Barcelona.

Comunicado de prensa.
Comunicat de premsa. pic.twitter.com/spClNvwzvr

— Historiadors de Catalunya (@historiadorsorg) November 11, 2023

Finally, they point out that “the agreements signed with ERC and PNV also make use of a distorted history to justify the investiture pact” and denounce that “the manipulation, distortion, falsification and concealment of history are the foundations on which the Catalan pro-independence story has been built and is being built. Therefore, the document signed by PSOE and Junts por Catalunya seeks to justify in the past a supposed conflict of Spain against Catalonia perpetuated in time”.