NATIONALISMS AND REGIONALISMS OF SPAIN

(Redirected from Nationalities in Spain)

Historically, the modern country of Spain was formed by the accretion of several independent Iberian realms (Asturias, León, Galicia, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, Majorca, Valencia, Al-Andalus) through dynastic inheritance, conquest and the will of the local elites. These realms had their own personalities and borders. Portugal, an independent country since the 12th century, was the only one of the Iberian realms not to be absorbed into the Spanish kingdom, due to the failure of the Iberian Union in 1640.
Since the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, there has been a process of uniformization by the central authorities. Simultaneously, this uniformization has been repelled by some of the local elites that formed their own national consciences based on traditional historical, linguistical and cultural traits.
The dynamics between centralization and decentralization is one of the forces in the history of the latest centuries. Since the beginning of the transition to democracy in Spain after the Francisco Franco dictatorship there have been many movements towards more autonomy in certain regions of the country in order to achieve full independence in some cases, to get their own autonomous community in others.
Despite uniformization, few Spanish citizens identify only as Spanish.
Many Spanish citizens feel no conflict in having several national identities at the same time.
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 states the following intentionally ambiguous sentence that lies in the root of the matter:
:''"The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the 'nationalities' and 'regions' of which it is composed and the solidarity among them all."
This article intends to describe the nationalist and regionalist parties' claims in Spain and it is divided between them, independently of their self-denomination, clearly distinguishable by their goals.
The structure of the article is also determined by social support and thoughts of the claims, so that even if there are political parties claiming independence from Spain for Castile, Cantabria, Aragon, Valencia, Andalusia or Murcia they hardly get any vote and thus do not represent the popular identitary and national sentiment (percentages of nationalist and regionalist votes are given in parentheses according to figures of the elections held at municipality level in May 2007).
Note that the only two autonomous communities not mentioned in this article are Madrid (capital of the State, traditionally part of Castilla-la Nueva - ''New Castile'' in English -, most of its population identifies itself primarily just with Spain) and La Rioja (traditionally part of Castile, there are little supported cultural movements to bring it nearer to the Basque Country, see Laminiturri).
Note that part of the politicians were reluctant or opposed in decentralization at the beginning of the transition, but most political forces have reached power in some region and now there is no major question about the decentralization but on its limits and future evolution.

Nationalism

Nationalist movements in Spain find an undeniable incompatibility between the Spanish nationality and their own nationalities.

Basque Country

Main articles: Basque Country (historical territory), Basque people, Basque language

★ (54.38% PNV+EA+Ezker Batua Aralar+EAE^[1])
Basque nationalism runs the range from full independence to further devolution to the Basque government.
For instance, the PNV wins regularly any election at either the town, region or Spanish levels in the Basque Country autonomous community, but the fact that it achieves a mere plurality and that electors of PNV do not unanimously support (full) independence, counters the belief that independence is a generally accepted idea by Basque population.
According to recent studies (see Euskobarómetro [1], [2]), a plurality (38%) of the population in the Basque Country autonomous community would vote YES, 31% NO, 13% not voting in a hypothetic independence referendum, and 19% did not answer (Voter turnout would be 68-69%, when taking that figure as the whole 100%, 55% of the voters would answer YES and 45% NO). Different results appear when the options are independence, further devolution or the current status. The option for a restoration of centralization is barely recorded.
The nationalists consider Navarre and the French Basque Country as part of the same nation, the Basque Country. In the current Basque Statute of Autonomy it is stated that Navarre has the legal right to belong to the autonomous community of the Basque Country, inside Spain.
The Basque Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.
The current President of the Basque Government proposed in 2003 a for changing the current status of the Basque Country as an autonomous community to a "status of free association" (see Associated State and Free State). It was approved by the majority (39 votes against 35) of the Basque Parliament, but the Spanish Congress of Deputies rejected it in 2005 (313 NO, 29 YES, 2 not voting) and it could not reach its goal.

The President of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has stated that he will support any reform to the Statute of Autonomy which is supported by 2/3 of the Basque Parliament (a verbal condition not legally written anywhere, for the only condition needed for a statute to be approve is the half of the total plus one votes in the Basque Parliament), which given the distribution of seats means that if the Basque Socialist Party approves of the reformed text, then the PSOE will support it at the Spanish level.

Catalonia

Main articles: Principality of Catalonia, Land of Valencia, Balearic Islands, La Franja, El Carxe, L'Alguer, Catalan people, Catalan language

★ (45.9% CIU+ERC+ICV)
Historically Catalan nationalism has supported a federalization that respects a Catalan nation within Spain.
Although most nationalist parties in Catalonia do not openly claim an independent state (ERC and the Independence Party do), it is regarded as the wish of a great part of the population, and, in fact, it was, during a short period in the Spanish Civil War.
The Catalan nationalists usually consider the Catalan-speaking regions (Catalonia, Land of Valencia, Balearic Islands, the independent state of Andorra, Roussillion and some adjacent strips) as part of the same "nation", the Catalan Countries.
The inhabitants of the Aran Valley still speak their own dialect of the Occitan language in addition to Catalan and Spanish.
Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.
In 2005, a draft of a new Statute of Autonomy, the 88.9% of the Catalan Parliament declared Catalonia a nation, but finally it was changed back to nationality (due to political pressure from both the Spanish Government and Opposition) and approved in a controversial referendum.
However, this statute mentions the word "nation", referring to Catalonia, in its preamble (with declaratory, but not legal value) [3].

Galicia

Main articles: Galiza, Galician people, Galician language, Eonavian

★ (21.19% BNG+Terra Galega)
Since 2005 Galicia is ruled by a coalition government between the PSdeG-PSOE and the nationalist BNG. Unlike in other Spanish regions, the Galician Partido Popular, the major party, includes "galicianism" (regionalism) as one of its ideological principles.
The Bloque Nacionalista Galego is itself a coalition of parties, neither of which endorses independence. Other nationalist parties stand for further devolution or outright independence but they only have representatives in local councils.
Its present Statute of Autonomy (1981) defines this region as a nationality. The Galician Government is drafting a new Statute of Autonomy where Galicia will most probably be defined as a nation.

Canary Islands

Main articles: Canary Islands, Canarian people, Canarian dialect

★ (23.27% CC)
Only in recent times a nationalism movement has been developed here.
Its insularity requires several specific treatments.
Even the Franco government conceded several privileges to the islands to compensate for their remoteness.
Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.
The Canarian Government is drafting a new Statue of Autonomy where the Canary Islands will be defined as a nation. However it must be noted that this nationalism is mild in its formulation, thus, independence is not even in the nationalist agenda. Historically, the Canarian Coalition can be deemed more as a lobby in order to favour Canarian interests within Spain rather than a nationalist movement like the ones formulated in other areas.

Regionalism

In most of these following regions people do not find conflictive the Spanish nationality and their own claimed national or regional identity.
There are two main political streams in regionalism: 'Nationalism-Regionalism', that supports the definition of the region as a nationality or nation but usually within Spain, and '"Regionalism"', that originally supported the creation of an autonomous community for its region, and now acts only as a promoter of its region but within Spain and respecting the current status of autonomous community, and these "regionalist" parties are commonly associated with PP in its region (or acting as its substitute or branch, as in Navarre UPN), see Federation of Regionalist Parties and Regionalist Party of Cantabria (that currently rules Cantabria supported by PSOE).

Castile

★ (Nationalism-Regionalism: Castile-Leon 0.81% + Castile La Mancha 0.12% TC)
Regionalists in Castile (such as Tierra Comunera) want to unify the traditional provinces of the kernel of the old Kingdom of Castile (Old Castile and New Castile), and that would include the modern communities of Castile-Leon, Cantabria, La Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Madrid, and perhaps even provinces of Valencia, Alicante and Murcia (since Tierra Comunera makes no mention of those once Castilian possessions in its ideological bases, but it does about the Basque Country, Andalusia and Canary Islands being distinct nations from Castile).
In the map shown above it is visible that Castilla has the so many times told shape of a wedge, the way the Castilian language spread to other parts of the peninsula (from Cantabria and La Rioja).

Aragon

Main articles: Aragon, Aragonese people, Aragonese language

Aragonese nationalist banner

★ (Nationalism-Regionalism: 8.69% CHA; "Regionalism": 13.98% PAR)
Traditionally it was an independent kingdom that, along with others, created the Crown of Aragon, that later merged with the Crown of Castile to forge Spain. While there's small pro-independence support, most of Aragon's population doesn't wish an independent state but to be fully recognized as a distinct and important region in Spain with its own (not yet officially) recognized Aragonese language. Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.

Andalusia

Main articles: Andalusia, Andalusian people, Andalusian Castilian

★ (Nationalism-Regionalism: 6.14% PA)
Andalusia first Statute of Autonomy could not be enacted during the Republican government because of the Spanish Civil War, and, although it is not considered an historical community in the literal sense, it had the upper autonomy level thanks to a referendum (1981).
They have a peculiar culture, way of being and behaving of their own, that makes the stereotype of the Spanish people as seen by many foreigners. The Andalusians also speak a very different dialect of Spanish, in its extreme form sometimes even difficult to understand by non Andalusians because of its hard accent (mainly in phonetics, rather than in grammar). This language is considered an Andalusian dialect of Spanish or as a full Andalusian language of its own by some people.
Its old Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality. In the new Statute of Autonomy, approved in referendum on February 18, 2007, Andalusia is defined as a national reality in the preamble ('Andalousian manifesto of Cordoba described Andalusia as a national reality in 1919...') and as a historic nationality in its first section. Hovewer most of Andalousian people feel as Spanish as Andalousian. They think that Spain is their country, their Homeland and Andalusia is the Region where they live.

Asturias

Main articles: Asturias, Asturian people, Asturian language, Eonavian

The nationalist banner used by Andecha Astur

★ (Nationalism: 2.25% +, 0.65% Unidá, 0.46% Andecha Astur)
Nationalist parties (e.g. Andecha Astur) do not get much support from population, but they have clearly an identity.
A wish for independence is stated sometimes by those parties, but as the independent and pre-Spanish Kingdom of Asturias was the initial core of the Reconquista, most of the people do not feel that there is any incompatibility in being Asturian and Spanish. Moreover, Asturian nationalist and regionalist claims are divided among independence, regionalism itself, conforming an autonomous community of Leon. Their sign of identity is the Asturian Language.

León

Main articles: Leonese language

★ (Castile-León 3.37%: León 12.74%, Zamora 1.76%, Salamanca 4.85% UPL+ZU+UPS)
Regionalists of León want to obtain an autonomous community including the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, and Asturias eventually joining them, the territories of the former Kingdom of León. They reject their present unification with Old Castile. Their sign of identity is the Leonese language, that brings them near their Asturian neighbours. The western territory of El Bierzo, and its capital Ponferrada, is linked to their Galician neighbours, and there is a sentiment for a union with Galicia specially among the speakers of the local Galician dialect.

Identity ambiguous regions in Spain

The following regions have belonged to different kingdoms, realms, states or regions for a time, and their population regularly consider themselves differently mostly depending on the part of the region.
Some of these want to be identified with their own regional identity (such as Navarre, Cantabria or Valencia), but in fact they are the outcome of different cultural and linguistical adjacent streams.
For instance, people in the South of Navarra have never felt Basque, and if some of them are thinking that way nowadays, it is because of cultural-political influence or immigration from adjacent Basque areas. The same goes for the people in the Spanish monolingual areas in Valencia (that have never felt Catalan in any way), and people in eastern or southern parts of Cantabria (which will never feel to be related to Astur-Leonese people).
So, generally speaking, these regions are constantly trying to forge its unitary identity (through "regionalist parties"), but in fact they are composed of opposing identities with more or less well established inner frontiers. Although mutual influence on both sides of those imaginary borders is common and may eventually lead to a common identity, it is highly unlikely to happen in regions like Navarre (where the vast majority of its northern population does not even want to be Spanish, but they only represent actually a minority when taking into account the whole population of Navarre). In Valencia it seems that their opposition to both Catalan and Castilian influences has managed to create a unique, distinct (and controversial) identity.

Navarre

★ ("Regionalism": 33.08% UPN; Basque nationalism: 21.59% NaBai+Aralar+EA+PNV+Batzarre+EAE^[2])
Its people may feel to be either Basque or Spanish, and their culture is more akin to either Aragon or Castilla in the southern and eastern parts, but in the northern half lies the original homeland of the Basque people, where Basque language is still spoken and is better preserved than in western and southern parts of the autonomous community of the Basque Country.

Distribution of Basque speaking people in Navarre 2001.

As stated by the Basque Statute of Autonomy, if approved by the Navarrese Parliament and popular referendum by majority, Navarre can join the autonomous community of the Basque Country at any time when desired by its government and population, no further actions are required. Navarre is not an Autonomous Community ''de iure'' (it is ''de facto'', though) because a Statute of Autonomy was not made nor approved by popular referendum (as it happened in each Autonomous Community). Instead, it is ruled by a document called "Amejoramiento del Fuero" (Improvement of the Fuero) and the region is considered a "Foral Community".
According to the ''Ley Foral del Vascuence'' ("Foral Law regarding Basque Language") of the Navarrese Parliament is divided in three linguistical areas (Basque speaking area, Bilingual area and Spanish speaking area). See map.

Valencia

★ (Nationalism: 9.29% BNV+EV+ERPV; "Regionalism": 0.79% UV)
Valencian, a dialect of the Catalan language, is spoken in most of the territory of the Valencian autonomous community, however the nationalist sentiment is not widespread and most of the population consider themselves as much Valencian as Spanish.
The nationalist sentiment is not significantly higher in any province (electoral results show that just about 8% of the votes in Castellon, the closest province to Catalonia, are nationalist, higher in the provinces of Valencia with 10.43% and Alicante with 9.06%, according to municipal elections held in May 2007).
Notwithstanding, their electoral stronghold where they get overall best results is an area split in two provinces: the southernmost end of the Valencia province and the northernmost end of the Alicante one. The fact that this area is split in two provinces reduces relative percentages in both provinces.
It's in the local elections that the nationalists obtain their best results; thus they hold several town councils and significant representation - mostly in the areas mentioned above. Conversely, it is in the general elections to the Spanish Parliament where they score worst (approximately 2% of the votes). In the regional elections to the Autonomous Parliament, the main nationalist party BNV usually gets around 4% of the votes, not having yet achieved the 5% threshold which grants representation in the regional Parliament.
There are territories in the Valencian autonomous community which are solely Spanish-speaking areas, where Valencian either was never spoken (roughly the inner 1/3 of the territory) or was historically sparsely spoken and finally disappeared (the southermost part of the autonomous community, around the city of Orihuela). These territories comprise approximately 25% of the whole autonomous community. Since Valencian nationalism is primarily built around the Valencian language, this political option is virtually non-existent in these areas.
In contrast to Unió Valenciana, the BNV and its forebears favour cooperation and ties with the other Catalan speaking territories and greater autonomy - if not independence itself - from Spain.
Esquerra Valenciana is a party "of national, republican and transforming left of the Valencian Country; that fights for the political sovereignty and defends the free confederation of this territory with Catalonia and the Balearic Islands". It hasn't achieved so far electoral representation of any kind.
Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.
===Balearic Islands===

★ ("Catalan" nationalism: 6.88% ; Majorcan Regionalism: 7.45% Unió Mallorquina)
They also speak some dialects of Catalan (''mallorquí'', ''menorquí'', ''eivissenc'', ''formenterer''), but they sympathize with Catalonian nationalistic claims more often than Valencian people do.

In fact, they officially call their language ''Catalan'' in the Statute of Autonomy (while in Valencia they call it Valencian).
Anyway, Majorca has been right-winged and much more pro-Spanish historically, than other Autonomous Communities. There are some centre parties, such as Unió Mallorquina that have Majorcan interests over the others', being a kind of regionalism, because they don't argue with the unity of Spain.

Cantabria

★ ("Regionalism": 28.87% PRC)
This region founded the Kingdom of Asturias and later formed part of the Kingdom of Castile. However Cantabria kept its old culture due to its geographic peculiarities and isolation from Castile, being always its natural relations with the northern peoples of Asturias and Biscay. Note that the Eastern coast (Castro Urdiales, Laredo) is a residential area for Basques of Biscay.

Extremadura

★ ("Regionalism": 0.06% EU)
This region was conquered by the Kingdom of Castile, but repopulated by many Leonese people, and their dialect (''castúo'') is thought to be a variety of the Leonese language.
In the South they speak something related to the Andalusian dialect or accent of Spanish.

See Extremaduran language.
There are some parts where Portuguese is also spoken near Olivenza, over which the Portuguese Republic holds a claim.
Regionalist movements also exist here.

La Mancha

★ (>0% PRM)
Mancheguian regionalism proposes that La Mancha is a region with its own identity, in the territories of the four provinces; Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, and Toledo. It has his its origins ''Mancheguismo'' that opposed the pan-Castilian thesis manifested foremost in Castilian nationalism.

Murcia

★ (>0%)
This Mediterranean region has belonged to several taifa kingdoms of Al-Andalus, Aragon and Castilla, therefore it shares many similarities with Andalusia, Valencia (a dialect of Valencian-Catalan is spoken in El Carxe) and Castile-La Mancha.

There have been and there are some regionalist movements too. Their goal is to restore the traditional region of Murcia (including Albacete and maybe Almería, and creating the province of Cartagena).

The haven of Cartagena declared itself an independent canton in 1868.

Ceuta and Melilla

There are two identities in these African cities.
The Spanish-speaking Christians feel similar to Andalusians, a minority of Christians (around 25% in Ceuta) also having Catalan roots.
The bilingual Muslims speak Arabic or Berber besides Spanish and have familiar, commercial and cultural relations with neighbour Morocco, although they generally maintain their political allegiance to the Spanish state, despite the Moroccan claim on the two cities.
Sephardic minorities evidently feel more strongly Spanish and many have emigrated to other towns in Southern Spain, especially Malaga. Nevertheless, they too have strong cultural ties with Morocco.

Conflicts with "nationality" and "nation" and related controversy in Spain

This map shows the regions in whose Statutes of Autonomy it is stated that they are ''nationalities''.
The rest of the autonomous communities (Asturias, Cantabria, Castile y Leon, La Rioja, Navarre, Madrid, Extremadura, Castile La Mancha, Murcia and Balearic Islands) are defined as ''regions''.
Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia were part of the same state-kingdom under the Crown of Aragon before the Spanish unification.

★ The two terms do not mean the same, but are used indistinctively by nationalist parties when justifying their political plans within the Spanish Constitution (nationality is regarded as an euphemism of nation).

★ The PSOE government under José Luis Zapatero has promoted the concept of Spain as a "Nation of nations"^[3] to integrate nationalist claims within Spain, despite of the ambiguous statement in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. It is non-constitutional for a ''region'' or ''nationality'' to declare itself a ''nation'' while inside the Spanish Nation.

★ Apparently, it is stated that a "region" of Spain can be either a ''nationality'' or a "plain" ''region'', composing then Spain of ''nationalities'' (Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Andalusia, Aragon, Valencia and Canary Islands) and ''regions'' (the rest of Spain), but this is not explicitly specified anywhere in the constitution.

★ The Spanish Constitution of 1978 makes Spain to be a decentralized state, but to work almost as a federation of states in fact.

★ Even if an autonomous community declares itself a ''nationality'' (and it does have the constitutional right to do it) that does not mean actually anything radically different from a ''region'' (since the degree of autonomy is determined by historical regionality, i.e. whether they got a Statute of Autonomy during the Second Republic or not, and the will of the population). In the 1980s, the statutes of the "historic" communities were approved in a "fast track" before those of the rest of regions.

★ The Spanish Government does not recognize the right of self-determination of its hypotetical underlying nationalities or nations, and will not respect the outcome of an eventual regional referendum regarding the subject of autodetermination or independence. However the Basque Parliament voted for recognizing this right on its region.

★ The term ''nationality'' refers only to the region, and not to its citizens. That is, a region can be a ''nationality'', but that does not imply that their citizens (also) have the nationality of that region, but only Spanish nationality. There is only a Spanish citizenship officially recognized.

★ ''Nationalities'' and hypotetical ''nations'' in Spain are not always based on ethnic criteria (as in the case of Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia) but on historical, linguistical and cultural facts which any person in those regions can assume and get identified with, regardless of his background origin, family homeland or ancestors belonging to different nationalities.

★ Modern "peripherial" (opposed to "central" nationalism, identified with Franco) nationalist movements in Spain (such as Basque nationalism, Catalan nationalism, Galician nationalism, Canarian nationalism, etc.) do not regard their "nations" as superior or better in any sense than any other one (although the founder of the Basque nationalism thought so), but just as distinct and independent nations from the Spanish one.

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References

1. In those elections the leftist nationalist-independentist party of Batasuna had been declared illegal and could not be voted. EAE-ANV appeared as its substitute, but plenty of these electoral lists were declared illegal too because people that had represented Batasuna before were in them. In 2007 elections its votes went to invalid (spoilt) votes where EAE-ANV could not be voted. So a percentage of 8.28% should probably be added to the nationalist figure of 54.38%, making a total of 62.66%
2. See previous note. Adding 2.24% (spoilt votes) to 21.59% = 23.83%
3. "Montilla asegura que España es una 'nación de naciones' y la reforma constitucional debe recoger la 'singularidad'", Europa Press, August 8, 2004. However, compare José Bono: "más como nación de ciudadanos iguales en derechos y obligaciones que como nación de naciones o Estado de pueblos", Ministry of Defence, November 8, 2005.

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NATIONALISMS AND REGIONALISMS OF SPAIN

Nationalism

Basque Country

Catalonia

Galicia

Canary Islands

Regionalism

Castile

Aragon

Andalusia

Asturias

León

Identity ambiguous regions in Spain

Navarre

Valencia

Cantabria

Extremadura

La Mancha

Murcia

Ceuta and Melilla

Conflicts with "nationality" and "nation" and related controversy in Spain

See also

Spanish peoples

Languages of Spain

Official languages

Unofficial languages

Others

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References

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