“Catalonia is not Spain”

Flags are visible in every corner of the stadium. Hundreds of flags of two different colours waving in the wind. Let’s go back to Sunday night, 8th of October of 2006 in Camp Nou, the football-stadium of FC Barcelona. Everywhere people are chanting and supporting their team. There are two varieties of flags waving in the stadium: Senyeres and Ikurriñas - the flags of Catalonia and the Basque country. Over 55,000 fans have come to watch the game between the two football teams. It is evident that the match is not only about football. Banners advocating self-determination have turned the stadium into something resembling an enormous political rally. One banner stands out. It is huge and carries the slogan “Catalonia is not Spain”.

In Madrid they only care about Madrid!

Catalonia, together with the Basque country and Galicia form part of the historical regions of Spain. In terms of legislation and administration they are endowed with significant power of their own. But it has not always been this way. More than once in its history, Catalonia was forced to give up its autonomous rights and powers. During Franco’s dictatorship from 1939 until 1977 the right of self-administration was abolished by the central state. The use of the Catalan language was prohibited and sanctioned, classes were taught only in Spanish and the names of cities and towns had to be changed. Only when Franco died and Spain became a democratic state in 1978 was Catalonia able to regain its independence. Since then much effort has been made to maintain and promote the Catalan culture and to enforce the use of Catalan as the only official language in administration as well as in schools.

In Catalonia, local issues have greater significance than in most regions. During last year’s race, the words “Catalonia”, “Catalan” or “Catalan language” were commonly used in the campaign posters, speeches and electoral programmes of nearly every political party. Among many, this regional pride is mixed with a certain disdain of exterior influence. “Those in Madrid are always criticising us and I don’t want them to tell us what to do”, says an 18 year old guy from Barcelona. This is a widespread opinion in Catalonia, particularly among the younger generation. Many young people develop a strong Catalan identity even though their parents may come from other regions of Spain. A survey conducted by the Opinion Research Centre of Catalonia in 2006 found out that a very strong Catalonian identity was most prominent among those between 16 and 34 years of age. An author writing under the username “arrabal” declares on the web page of the newspaper 20minutos: “Facing centralism – European, Madrilenian or any other – the natural and reasonable answer is nationalism. We most care about the things that are next to us. It doesn’t help me at all to pay taxes that are spent to improve the Prado Museum in Madrid while school buildings and hospitals in my neighbourhood fall into pieces. Nationalism is just a collective survival instinct”.

Not everybody shares this opinion. Many journalists who analysed the last Catalan elections that took place in November 2006 concluded that the results show frustration among the citizens as a result of a policy that puts Catalanism – matters of Catalan independence and culture – higher than social issues like housing and education. One example was the unexpected success of the new Ciutadans (Catalan for “citizen”) party, whose anti-nationalist position is one of its most remarkable characteristics. 90,000 people voted for this new party, a number which would nearly fill the Camp Nou Stadium. This is a signal for the established parties that there are people who want a Catalan identity that is unified with Spain as a whole. After the elections, Albert Rivera, the leader of Ciutadans, stated that people want a country “where you can feel Catalan and Spanish without being called fascist, where persons or companies can speak one language or another without being sanctioned and where tax money is invested in education and science rather than in Catalan sport selections”.

The Viability of Independence

Those in favour of independence claim that Spain is bad for the Catalonian economy and political system. But what would be the consequences of an independent Catalan state? With a population of about 6.7 million, Catalonia is bigger than Finland and its gross domestic product (GDP) of 152 billion euros is higher than the GDP of Hungary. This reveals that a Catalonian economy would have a remarkable weight in the European Union. “Considering all parts of Spain in which Catalan is spoken, Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, we would actually be one of the big countries among the small ones”, says Eladi Llop, member of the executive board of the political party Esquerra (Catalan for “left”). Not coincidentally, Esquerra is the party which most promotes an independent Catalan state. “Spain only cares about itself and doesn’t worry much about Catalonia”, says Llop. “The process of globalisation marks a tendency that the significance of states generally decreases. Only strong identities will survive. That’s why we think that we can only gain with the independence because we have a strong own identity”.

Opponents of an independent Catalan state assert that an independent Catalonia would risk losing the Spanish market, which is the biggest consumer of Catalan products. In 2005, when Spain boycotted Catalan’s most important export good, cava (sparkling wine), the consequences for the Catalan economy were grave. Furthermore, Catalan products must compete on a global market with products from the Czech Republic, China or Chile, countries in which taxes are lower and workers earn less. With the rest of Spain at its back, Catalonia possesses a certain leveraging power to boost its overall export economy. Without this, Catalonia is on its own.

Apart from economic concerns, there is also the question of where independence stands in the Spanish constitution. Dr. Montserrat Nebrera, professor of law at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya and deputy of the Conservative Partido Popular in the new Catalan parliament explains that the Spanish constitution leaves no doubt that an independent Catalonia would be deemed invalid. “It simply doesn’t talk about independence”, says Dr. Nebrera, “The fundamental principle of its own existence is an indivisible and unique Spanish state . . . Nations of nations do not exist.” Dr. Nebrera says that independence under international law “applies only to former colonies which desired to declare themselves independent from their imperial mother-states. This means they refer to states on which had been imposed an artificial constitution”.

Advocates of independence view Catalonia as a colony of an imperialist nation (Spain). This, in turn, ought to give Catalonia the right of self-determination of the people – the right, in other words, to claim their independence. As evidence, they point to the dictators of Spain’s past and to the Constitution itself. Article 8.1 of the Spanish constitution proclaims the armed forces to be the guarantee of the territorial unity of the state. “There is no other occidental constitution with such a content”, says Eladi Llop. “The modern concept of state considers the armed forces to be the guarantee of the interests of the people and not of the territorial unity”. And with the threat of this military (which the constitution commands to protect the state), what would become of the Catalan people if they did attempt to gain independence?

Unity in diversity

The fundamental principle of the European Union is unity in diversity. This slogan implies that a European citizen considers himself to be just as Spanish, German, English or Polish as he considers himself to be European. The idea that one person holds two identities also exists on a national level. The possession of two identities is a common characteristic of all nations especially those with a federal structure like the United States or Germany. A Texan has a totally different mentality than a New Yorker, but both of them have the American flag flying in their front yard. This double identity exists in the United States just as it does in Germany. A woman that was born in Bavaria calls herself Bavarian in other parts of the country but when going abroad she refers to herself as German. She doesn’t deny either identity – the Bavarian or the German.

“Each community with a common identity is an ‘imagined community’. It only exists because a certain number of people create this community as part of their reality. This means that Catalonia would no longer exist once the people stop identifying themselves with Catalonia”, states Michael Weigl, PhD, political scientist at the Ludwigs-Maximilian-Universtität in Munich. “Movements longing for independence always signal the existence of two different and crashing constructions of identity”. Applied to the case of Catalonia, this would indicate that the Catalan people only consider themselves as Catalans and not as part of an imagined community called Spain. They do not have the feeling of being Catalan and Spanish at the same time.

Why do so many Catalans fail to reconcile those two identities? The repeated loss of autonomy and the wounds of suppression during Franco’s rule are immense. No more than thirty years have passed since Catalan was permitted as an official language. The heavy footprint of the Franco regime remains upon many of the older generations, leaving traces of fear and animosity toward the Spanish state. For those with this experience, there is the distinct impression that not enough was done to counter the crimes committed during the dictatorship. This perspective is not aided by the fact that many of those who were involved in the crimes of the Franco regime remain active in today’s politics. The Catalans still consider their identity to be endangered. It will be impossible for these individuals to accept a Spanish identity until they feel that their Catalan identity is secure.

By the way, no winner emerged from the match between the Catalan and the Basque team at Camp Nou. The game ended with a tie – 2:2. The future of Catalonia also remains undecided. Unlike football, there may never be a clearly-defined winner or loser. In the end what is important is whether the Catalan people will be able to live in accordance with both identities.

Picture: © Daniel Slusarcik, 2006