Secessionism in Catalonia: After Democracy

AbstractThe article is divided into four main parts. First it offers a theoretical framework, which includes key concepts such as nation, state and nation without state. Second, it examines the origins of modern Catalan nationalism by tracing back its roots to Franco's dictatorship and the subsequent transition to democracy. Third, it analyses the reasons behind the qualitative shift from devolution to secession embodied in the rise of a novel bottom-up Catalan secessionist movement, which has developed in the last five years or so. This movement supports the idea of holding a referendum on Catalan independence from Spain—so far, strictly forbidden by the Spanish state. This part also analyses the impediments to a 'referendum' on Catalan independence founded upon the Spanish Constitution. The final part focuses on the main arguments invoked by Catalans when prompted to account for the rise of secessionism, only recently introduced into the Catalan political landscape. Notes1 http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/our-response-people-catalonia 2 See Bilbeny (Citation1988), and also Colomer (1984).3 PSC: Socialist Party of Catalonia, federated with the PSOE; PSOE: Spanish Socialist Workers' Party; ERC: Catalan Republican Left; ICV: Greens.4 At the election, the PSC (PSC-PSOE)-CpC obtained 42 seats, corresponding to 31.17% of the vote. Against all predictions, the CiU, with its new leader Artur Mas, managed to obtain 30.93% of the vote, which corresponded to 46 seats. As well as the PSC, it had also lost 10 seats when compared with 1999. The key to political change in Catalonia was then in the hands of the ERC, which obtained a record 23 seats, corresponding to 16.47% of the vote. In the 1999 election, it had obtained 8.7% of the vote, corresponding to 12 seats. The ICV achieved a significant recovery, obtaining nine seats (it had five previously), and the PP obtained 15 seats, three more than in 1999.5 La Vanguardia, 24 January 2013, Catalan News Agency, accessed 24 January 2013.6 El País, Madrid, 9 July 2010, 'La Constitución no conoce otra nación que la Espanola', http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Constitucion, accessed 27 September 2010.7 El País, Madrid, 28 June 2010, Los artículos considerados inconstitucionales', http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Constitucion, accessed 27 September 2010.8 El País, 11 May 2008. See also, Las Balanzas fiscales de las CC.AA. espanolas con las AA. Públicas centrales 2005, Ministerio de economía y hacienda, Madrid, 15 July 2008, p. 19.9 La Vanguardia, 4 April 2012, http://lavanguardia.com/politica, accessed 4 April 2012.10 CiU won the Catalan election by obtaining 50 seats, corresponding to 30.68% of the vote, that is, 1.112.341 million votes. However, CiU lost 12 seats. On this election, the biggest winner was the Catalan Republican Left (ERC)—a party in favour of independence founded in 1931. ERC progressed from 10 to 21 seats in the Catalan parliament, thus obtaining 13.68% of the vote, equivalent to 496,292 votes.11 Declaration of the National Conference for the Constitution of a Catalan State, Barcelona, 30 April 2011.