“Peace, piety and forgiveness”. Discourse given on July 18, 1938 at Barcelona City Hall Including prologue to “Azaña in his discourses”, by Santos Juliá, extracted from the book Manuel Azaña. Political Discourses

Abstract

Manuel Azaña Díaz died at the Hotel du Midi in Montauban (France), on November 4, 1940. His historical figure, previously controversial, has been generally recognized since the democratic transition for his personal and political career in the context of those turbulent years for Spain and the whole Europe. As a parliamentarian, he delivered some of the most significant speeches of the 1930s in the hemicycle of the Congress of Deputies, period characterised by the conflict between democracies and totalitarianisms. For
this reason, the quotations of the person who was President of the Second Republic frequently illustrate the interventions of many members of the parliamentary chambers and of the most relevant academic studies today. On the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of his death, the Revista de las Cortes Generales publishes the full text of the famous speech he gave in Barcelona on July 18, 1938, a piece of high literary quality and remarkable political significance. A contribution by the renowned historian Santos Juliá (1940-2019), generously authorized by Editorial Crítica, is included as a contextual study. The Professor was a reputable specialist in the work of the politician born in Alcalá de Henares and his piece “Obras Completas” (published by the Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales) can now be considered definitive as the culmination of the very valuable editorial work done in exile by Juan Marichal. This issue of the Revista also includes a work of synthesis about the character who is identified with that critical moment of 20th century Spain.