After the abdication of Amadeo I, it was clear that the trial of a democratic monarchy in Spain after the exile of Isabel II had not worked. The paradox then arose that Parliament proclaimed the republic even though the defenders of this form of state were a minority. It did not seem that there was another possible path... Was it necessary to start looking for another king abroad and Spanishize him later? Too much work and no guarantee that the experiment would go well. The change, therefore, was approved with overwhelming support from the Cortes: 258 votes to 32.
The Catalan Estanislao Figueras (1819-1882), the first president, was a man with an extensive resume as a republican fighter. A prestigious lawyer, a skilled orator, and a character of unquestioned personal honesty, he seemed a good candidate to become a new father of the country. His convictions, as was obvious to all, were federalist. However, as head of state, he did not want to impose that format. He hoped that the constituent courts would take care of it after the majority of the population, in free elections, gave their consent.
Figueras headed a democratizing program that sought to solve the chronic instability of a nation torn by continuous confrontations. In The First Republic (Akal, 2023), Florencia Peyrou points out that the reformists of the time sought to ensure that all opinions could be expressed so that uprisings were no longer necessary.
But the new president had to face formidable challenges, with two civil wars at the same time: the Carlist uprising in the north and the independence uprising in Cuba. It was difficult to govern in any way when the State did not even control all its territory.
The Constituent Cortes were inaugurated on June 1, 1873. In his speech, Figueras warned that he was satisfied with having been one of the founders of the Republic and that it was up to others to consolidate it. The time had come for him to hand over his powers to Parliament. If the Cortes elected him again, he had no intention of accepting the position.
Six days later the federal republic was proclaimed. Another Catalan, Francesc Pi i Margall, ran for the presidency, but, failing to win support, Figueras continued as acting president. In the midst of so many problems, he had no better idea than to deliver his resignation to the Vice President of Congress and go to France on the night of June 10.
Jorge Vilches, in The First Spanish Republic (Espasa, 2023), considers that this decision did not shine due to its good sense: "[Figueras] was left alone, fled and chose exile to tell the truth instead of telling it in the Government or before the Permanent Commission, which would have been more consistent and responsible”.
Supposedly, the first president of the Republic, before leaving, would have said, with a rude expression (the famous "Gentlemen, I'm going to be frank, I'm fed up with all of us"), that he was fed up with the political class. Is the quote true or is it an apocryphal comment, like so many in history? In his prologue to Peyrou's work, the specialist Ángel Duarte considers that the statement “is perfectly plausible, if we look at the personal character and political profile of Figueras' republicanism”.
What was the reason for such an apparently surprising act? The political isolation of the protagonist was mixed with his difficult personal situation. He had health problems and was depressed by the recent death of his wife. However, private circumstances do not explain everything. The interested party himself would justify his actions as a way of leaving the field free for Pi i Margall, his substitute and rival. According to his version of events, he had sacrificed his personal reputation for the good of the Republican cause.
After his escape, Figueras was showered with criticism. The novelist Benito Pérez Galdós, for example, described him as a deserter. The press was equally harsh. For La Época (06-16-1873), he had demonstrated his “lack of political value”. El Imparcial (06-14-1873) accused him of provoking a conflictive situation to later leave and leave the country bogged down: "After having caused alarm in the Assembly and outside of it, he hides, disappears, escapes, flees from Madrid and Spain”.
For La Iberia (12-06-1873), with Figueras not only a high personality had left. His flight also symbolized "the banishment of the republican hopes that he conceived." By “hopes”, this newspaper understood, for example, the federalist project that the former president had traced with “his fascinating words of him”. The disappearance of the president came to mean not a small setback, but a catastrophe for his entire cause: "The Republicans have lost more than one man, they have lost the entire party."
In El Gobierno (06-13-1873) there was also no lack of severe words. It could not be understood that Figueras fled for no apparent reason: “Who is he fleeing from? Who is he afraid of? In what danger? An event of this nature made one fear the worst for the future of a regime that had barely taken its first steps: “How long will the republic last whose first president evaporates?”
Meanwhile, in La Igualdad (06-12-1873) a feeling of stupefaction reigned. This medium, which defined itself as a "federal republican newspaper", was closely affected by the facts, since Figueras had been its director: "We felt deeply moved when we found ourselves forced to censor our former boss, the man we trusted to the great citizen to whom the entire party owes such eminent services”.
The former president, according to his co-religionists, had committed political suicide by starring in "an unprecedented event, one of those events that have no precedents in the history of any country." It was incomprehensible that a statesman, overnight, decided to escape abroad without giving the slightest explanation to anyone, not even his closest friends or his longtime political colleagues. Such a gesture could only cause general surprise and unanimous censure. The most indulgent spoke of "lack of courage and weak character."
The explanation of the lack of personality, however, is not credible. As María Ángeles Pérez Samper and Federico Martínez Roda have highlighted in their brief biographical studies, Figueras was not a faint-hearted person. He had shown it at other times in his life. As in the Cortes of 1854, when he voted against the monarchy in a demonstration of courage, because it was not easy at that time to go against the current.
Meanwhile, rumors were flying. La Crónica (06-23-1873) reported that Figueras was almost certainly going to accept the post of ambassador in Paris, although he would not take possession of it until France recognized the Spanish government. The Gallic republic, however, never did such a thing, like any of the other European powers.
During his last years, the former president tried to rebuild the unity of the Republican ranks, without much success, while he became involved in conspiracies to proclaim a republic without adjectives, neither federal nor unitary. Unfortunately, unlike Pi i Margall, he has not received much attention from historians. Perhaps a future academic biography will clarify the enigmas that still surround his figure.
