Catalan Nationalist Flags (Spain)

Last modified: 2004-04-29 by santiago dotor
Keywords: catalonia | star | star (red) | star (yellow) | triangle: hoist (blue) | triangle: hoist (red) | triangle: hoist (yellow) | canton (blue) | estelada | paisos catalans | catalan countries |
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• Estelada
• Catalan Countries Proposal (Països Catalans)
• Nationalist Parties' Flags 1977
• Catalan spoken Flag
• Catalonia 1931-1939

See also:

• Origin of the Aragonese-Catalan Flag
• Political Parties and Movements (Spain)
• Catalonia (Spain)

Other sites:

• Història de l'Estelada (History of the Estelada, Catalan text only)

by Jorge Candeias
First used 1918

The flag of Catalonia with a blue hoist triangle and white star in it, was designed around 1904 by Catalan nationalists who had returned from Cuba after its independence in 1902, taking the Cuban flag as model. It was adopted as the flag of the Estat Catala (Catalan State) party, which proposed the creation of an independent Catalan state, the flag of which would include a blue triangle (since the flag without triangle is considered the flag of the Catalan nation but not of the state). The nickname of this flag is estelada, which means "starry". It became so popular that it was one of the two flags used on 14 April 1931 in the proclamation of the Catalan Republic (a short-lived republic that was rescinded within one week under pressure from the Spanish Republican government). The Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party, which governed Catalonia between 1931 and 1939 adopted the flag and afterwards merged with the Estat Catala party.

I think that this flag is currently used also by the PI [Partit per la Independencia or Party for Independence, a spin-off from ERC] but I'm not sure.

The official Catalan flag is 2:3. Unofficial and independentist flags are normally 2:3, but of course no regulation exists.

There exist other designs (red triangle and yellow star; blue canton with white star) with a very limited use. There is also a design in which the triangle is narrower.

Jaume Ollé, 16 June 1996-18 July 1998

This flag is not only used by the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party, but also by right-wing separatists.

Salva, 1 April 1997

I saw this flag in the Pyrenées-Orientales (French department roughly corresponding to the Roussillon region, i.e. to French Catalonia) at what seemed to be a popular celebration.

Thanh-Tâm Lê, 16 March 1999

Certainly exist several versions: yellow triangle with red star is the most used by the leftist, but also white with red star, black with red star, green with red star, etc. Adolf Duran reported that near all the combinations are used by some group or organization, but I have not seen them. I recently saw another variation. The Reus headquarters of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (a center-left independentist party) flies the flag of the party. It is absolutely new so it must be the official one: it is the estelada but with the white star in different form, like the star in the old Vietnamese flag.

Jaume Ollé, 16 June 1996-18 July 1998

by Jorge Candeias

by Jorge Candeias

by Jorge Candeias

Països Catalans

by Jorge Candeias

This flag is used by Catalan independentist leftist nationalists who propose the creation of an independent Republic of the Catalan Countries containing all Catalan-speaking territories [so-called Països Catalans, Catalan Countries], that is to say Catalonia, Valencia, Balearic Islands, Rousillion [France] and Alghero in Sardinia [Italy]. The red star represents the socialist ideology of the nationalists, but it has been admitted additionally nationalistic not socialistic. This flag was adopted for the PSAN (National Liberation Socialist Party) in 1976, when a fraction of the party left to create the MUM, which retained the old PSAN flag (white triangle). This is not the flag of the Catalan Countries, which should be the same of Catalonia, just an independentist leftist proposal.

Jaume Ollé, 16 June 1996-18 July 1998

Emil Dreyer reported some Catalan party flags in use in 1977:

• Unio Democratica de Catalunya (still exists): white with rectangular Catalan flag in center but the bars in vertical. Name write in white part (UNIO at hoist; DEMOCRATICA above; DE, in fly; and CATALUNYA, below);
• Front Nacional de Catalunya (merged later with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya): Catalan flag with vertical bars and blue band with white star at hoist;
• Partit Socialista d'Alliberament Nacional (PSAN, I believe that it still exists): Catalan flag with white triangle at hoist with red star.

Jaume Ollé, 29 August 1999

by António Martins

A flag meaning "Catalan spoken" I saw in Valencia in 1993. It's a white background with a large comic speak "balloon" outlined and shadowed in black and filled with the senyera: four red stripes on a yellow background. I suppose this was a left over from some kind of language campaign in the mid-80s. I seem to recall the catalan standardization campaign "El català, cosa de tots" had a similar logo...

António Martins, 21 December 1998