Cn - Session 12 Spanish Nationalism

Session 12: Spanish Nationalism ► Catalan

Nationalism in Comparative Perspective ► IES

Barcelona ► FALL 2007 PROGRAM

► ►

Instructor: Andrew Davis e-mail: [email protected] 1

Spanish Nationalism ► Today

we will explore Spanish nationalism, particularly as it relates to the peripheral nationalisms of Catalonia and the Basque Country, both historically and at present.

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Spanish Nationalism ► First

and foremost – does it exist?

► In

fact, historically it has been debated as to whether or not Spanish nationalism exists. ► Compared with the massive amount written on Catalan and Basque Nationalism, comparatively little exists on Spanish nationalism – why do you think that is?

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Spanish Nationalism ► It

does indeed exist.

► Any

construction of a ‘national’ identity is nationalism. In everyday parlance, it can get confusing, however, because the state tends to give certain ‘types’ of nationalism legitimacy. 4

Spanish Nationalism ► Spanish

nationalism has gone through many changes and developments since the 19th century.

► There

are many ways to distinguish the ‘types’ of nationalism which have emerged, but we will focus on two:  The difference between civic and ethnic  It’s position on centralization/decentralization 5

Spanish Nationalism – Ethnic or Civic? ► Meinecke

defined ‘cultural nations’ based on ‘some jointly experienced cultural heritage’.

► He

defined ‘political nations’ as based on a ‘unifying force of a common political history and constitution’.

► Which

is ethnic and which is civic?

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Ethnic and Civic Nationalism ► Civic

nationalism - considers the nation as a community of destiny defined by a common body of law, which applies to all citizens and is in turn the origin of all legislation. ► Ethnic nationalism – nations can be created out of pre-existing ethnies. It emphasizes the distinctive racial, linguistic, religious or cultural factors of the original ethnie and aims to return to its ‘Golden Age’.

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Ethnie ► Ethnie

- a named human population with myths of common ancestry, shared historical memories, one or more elements of common culture, a link with a homeland, and a sense of solidarity among at least some of its members'

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Is any nationalism 100% ethnic or civic? ► To

be clear – we often use typologies to describe nationalisms:  Catalan nationalism is ‘civic’  Basque nationalism is ‘ethnic’

► While

they can be generally true, or at least carry more traits of one than the other, they often carry characteristics of both. 9

Nationalism rooted in War of Independence ► Monuments

to celebrate the defeat of

the French ► May 2nd becomes a national holiday.

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Liberal Spanish Nationalism ► Takes

its roots in the 1812 Constitution, the revolution was to defend liberal values. ► Church and clergy disease; education and science the cure ► Redemptive ideal: freedom, democracy ► Broadly civic discourse

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Regenerationists ► The

Spanish regenerationists arise at the turn of the century parallel to the peripheral nationalisms. ► Rather than creating autonomy and decentralization to save Spain, they sought to a ‘regeneration’ of Spain. ► What did they advocate? 12

Regenerationists ► 1.

Nation as an organic whole that had evolved into a national character. ► 2. Highlights Castile as central to the historical formation of the nation in the Middle Ages and Castilian as the national language ► 3. Criticizes the corrupt and inefficient restoration monarchy system ► 4. Criticizes peripheral nationalism as artificial, bourgeois and backward looking. 13

Regenerationism as Nationalism ► It

was a nationalism which sought to modernize Spain via industrialization, social reform and democratization. ► But while they attempted to criticize both the restoration monarchy and peripheral nationalism, their criticism of peripheral nationalism helped (however inadvertently) both liberals AND conservatives could use their arguments to support their versions of Spanish nationalism. 14

Two versions of liberal Spanish nationalism ► 1)

Moderate liberal Spanish nationalism defended a uniform centralize state as the best way to cement the liberal order, while maintaining an ethnic identification between Catholicism and Spanish national identity. 15

Two versions of liberalism version of Spanish nationalism ► 2)

Progressive liberal Spanish Nationalism created a more civic alternative, and came from progressive liberals and republicans. ► They celebrated a decentralization state, historical fueros, protecting liberal freedoms. 16

Two versions of liberalism version of Spanish nationalism ► Progressives

attempted to solve the national ‘problem’ in the 1st and 2nd Republic via decentralization. ► Attempted to integrate, rather than excluse, the different nations through institutional reform. ► Moderate progressives believe in strong democracy and liberalism, but via a centralized state which guaranteed individual freedoms. 17

Conservative Spanish Nationalism ► Two

versions of Conservative Spanish Nationalism: ► 1) Conservative Traditionalist ► 2) Historicist-Romanticist

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Conservative Traditionalist ► Nation

that the Visigoths started and Catholic Kings consolidated. Celebrated Counter-reformation and anti-Islamic wars. ► War of independence celebrated expelling the ‘alien invader’, an ethnic approach ► Considered liberalism ‘anti-Spanish’ ► Redemptive ideal – community politically and religiously united, strong Crown and Catholic Church.

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Conservative Spanish Nationalism transition ► As

with liberal Spanish nationalism, a break will develop over decentralization.

► The

‘original’ conservative traditionalist nationalist supports a decentralized Spain based on medieval privileges, defense of fueros and close ties to Vatican (linked to Carlism).

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Historicist-Romanticist Conservative Nationalism ► Later,

1) Conservative Traditionalist version of Conservative Nationalism has to compete with 2) HistoricistRomanticist Conservative Nationalism ► Spanish nation as biological organism with its own ‘national character’. ► Support a strongly unitarian, centralized state, and were against the fueros. Wanted to unify state, nation, culture and language. 21

Historicist-Romanticist Nationalism grows ► In

contrast to regenerationists and Conservative Traditionalists, Historicist-Romanticists saw a new authoritarian, anti-liberal, Catholic, and centralist Spanish nationalism as the key to Spanish regeneration. ► Professional army officers very involved, also the monarchy and radical sectors of Conservative thinking. 22

Historicist-Romanticist Nationalism ► It

was this group that dominates 20th century, from Primo to Franco. ► Postulated a monarchist ultra-Catholic idea of the nation, in which religion, the Castilian language, and the common imperial past represented the essence of the Spanish people. ► Remember the context - fascism 23

Franco adopts HistoricistRomanticist Nationalism ► History

of the Civil War explained as a ‘crusade’, elaborated the image of the anti-Spain, a mythological figure which incorporated liberals, republicans, leftists and peripheral nationalists – the ‘cancer’ of the nation. ► Disease had to be cured through ‘purifying violence’ 24

Contemporary Spanish Nationalism ► One

way of measuring contemporary Spanish nationalism is via parties’ positions on decentralization ► During the transition, most parties support it, although the ‘bunker’ and parts of the army (remember the coup attempt in 1981) did not.

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Contemporary Spanish Nationalism ► Socialists

rediscovered the ‘regionerationalists’. They supported federalism but continuously spoke about solidarity. ► The Conservatives put away their more radical interpretations, also taking their cue from regenerationalists, and but still defined Spain as the only nation in the Spanish state. 26

Spanish Nationalism as Civic Nationalism ► Spanish

nationalism exists on both left AND right in Spain. ► There have been attempts on the left and the right to defend Spanish nationalism from a more acceptable ‘perspective’. ► Most recently, politicians have borrowed a phrase from philospher Jürgen Habermas’ ‘constitutional patriotism’.

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Constitutional Patriotism ► The

problem was the stigma of Germany’s relationship to Nazism, and the question was, in essence – how could Germany as a nation celebrate its history with the stain of Nazism so prominent in its recent past? The answer, according to Habermas, was that it couldn’t. Instead, he develops the idea to shift popular allegiance from traditions and history to

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Constitutional Patriotism ► Constitutional

Patriotism defends the idea of citizenship-based universal civic principles rather than a shared culture.

► For

Habermas, it was the notion of a political culture and a ‘political identity based on a commitment to democratic procedures and principles’ which were to be celebrated in Germany 29

Constitutional Patriotism? ► Has

Constitutional Patriotism replaced Spanish nationalism in Spain? ► The short answer, is no.

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Contemporary Conservative Spanish nationalism ► For

example, the leader of the PPC in the early 1990s, Aleix Vidal Quadras, fought continuously with the Catalan executive over Catalan language policy, and was eventually removed by the PP as leader of the Catalan branch in 1996 for his overly aggressive stance towards Catalan language and cultural policy. 31

Conservative Spanish nationalism ► In

September 2000, as PP member of the European parliament, he made an attempt to have the European Parliament formally denounce the Generalitat’s linguistic policies, which was rejected as too general and political by the EP.

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Conservative Spanish nationalism ► His

complaints about the repression of the Spanish language in Catalonia does not stand up against actual public concerns in Catalonia. ► A study done in 2003 placed ‘linguistic problems’ as the 12th most important problem concerning Catalans, mentioned by only 3.6 per cent of those interviewed. 33

Conservative Spanish nationalism ► Four

of the five parties (minus the PPC) in Catalonia also supported the return of the Generalitat’s historical papers from the 2nd Republic era, now resident the Spanish National Archives in Salamanca. ► The archives were removed from the Catalan government records (and from Catalonia) after the end of the Spanish Civil War by Francoist forces. 34

Conservative Spanish nationalism ►A

commission was established by Pilar del Castillo, PP Minister of Culture and Education, to look into the matter. In July 2002, the Patronato del Archivo announced that the return of the Generalitat’s documentation was ‘incompatible with the unity of the archive’, and the records remained in Salamanca. ► While the incoming Socialist central government supported their return, it has backtracked recently and the issue is still being fought over.

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Conservative Spanish nationalism ► In

September 2000, parliament approved changes to the Spanish license plate. While they had traditionally marked the provincial registry of the car, (B for Barcelona or M for Madrid, for example) the new plates would no longer carry these, marking only the blue and yellow EU emblem with an ‘E’ for España or Spain.

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Conservative Spanish nationalism ► In

October 2002, in a symbolic gesture, the Defense Minister, Federico Trillo, the Mayor of Madrid, and three of the four top military officers in Spain unveiled a 294 square meter Spanish flag in the plaza de Colón, meant as an homage to Spain and the national flag – a move which sparked controversy in the periphery as it carried with it reminders to some of the military’s intimate role in Spain’s past, and resurrects the controversial historical weight of a ‘Castile-centered’ Spain. 38

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Conservative Spanish nationalism ► Lastly,

in 2003, at the Cervantes awards, King Juan Carlos made a speech which claimed that Spanish had never been an ‘imposed’ language on anyone (either in Europe or elsewhere). The King’s speeches are created and approved by the Ministry of Culture. The statement prompted an apology later by the King to Jordi Pujol.

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Shades of the Past? ► On

January 7, 2006 - Lieutenant-General Jose Mena Aguado, the commander of Spain’s 50,000 ground troops, threatened military intervention should the Socialist Party (PSOE) government pass a statute giving the Catalan autonomous government status as a “nation,” together with control over the region’s taxes and the judicial system. Mena denounced the Catalan Statute as a threat to Spain’s territorial integrity.

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Liberal Spanish Nationalism ► There

are 2 strands within the Socialist party at the moment, and they fit neatly into the 2 versions of liberal Spanish nationalism.

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Modern version of progressive liberal Spanish nationalism ► The

first camp, which believes in decentralization and ‘respect’ for a multinational Spain, is headed by Prime Minister Zapatero ► This group has been behind renegotiating the statutes of autonomy to EXTEND autonomy to the regions. They are more comfortable referring to Spain as ‘multinational’. ► They are linked to what we referred to in the historical section as the progressive liberal Spanish nationalist stance.

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Modern version of moderate liberal Spanish Nationalism

► The

other is headed by groups from the ‘heartland’, most symbolically by Jose Bono (former Defense minister and former President of Castilla-La Mancha) and Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, President of Extremadura (western Spain). ► Ibarra, has told the relatively wealthy Catalans to "shove the cash wherever it fits" if they think their taxes are unfairly funding his poorer region on the western side of Spain. ► Jose Bono resigned as Defense Minister in April over his disagreement about creating a new Catalan Statute.

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Modern version of moderate liberal Spanish Nationalism

► The

roots of this modern strand are attached to former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez (1982-1996). ► While a major player in the transition, and a strong supporter of the ‘estado de las autonomias’, he nevertheless was firm in his conviction that solidarity needed to be maintained, and halted decentralization short of full federalism. ► They are much more ‘traditional’ socialists, in the sense that they believe in solidarity and equality between all people in the state, rather than equality between groups. 45