Barcelona: The warning from the spokesman of Spain's ruling party stopped hearts across Catalonia: If Carles Puigdemont declared independence, he might "end up like the man who declared it 83 years ago".

That man was Lluis Companys, the Catalan president who was imprisoned and later executed by the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Two men, one wearing a Spanish flag, left, and the other wearing an estelada' or independence flag, talk during Spain's National Day in Barcelona on Thursday. Credit:AP

Today his death, on October 15, 1940, will be marked by a march to Barcelona's Montjuic Castle, the site of the public act of punishment which still rankles deep in Catalans' historical consciousness. Accompanied by his entire cabinet, Mr Puigdemont will lay a wreath at the tomb of Companys, whose reported cry "For Catalonia!" as he faced the firing squad immortalised him as a martyr to the modern day independence movement.

As outrage grew over his words on Monday, Pablo Casado, the spokesman for Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party claimed he had not been referring to Companys' execution but instead his earlier imprisonment for "rebellion" after he declared a Catalan state within a Spanish federal -republic.