Is there a difference to go along with that distinction? The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
People vote for "us", regardless of whether they actually agree on anything much ideologically.
To a large number of people in Spain, the PP is the only party standing up for "us" against those pesky "them" out there in Catalonia. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
They are voting nationalist, in the strict sense of nation:
Nation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A nation is a body of people who share a real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin.[1]
If I'm reading you correctly, the conservatives have two beefs with the Catalans: the Catalans are not Spanish (i.e. belonging to the Spanish "nation"), and the Catalans refuse to identify as Spanish. Nice Catch-22, that.
To the extent that a constitution embodies the shared governing principles of a nation, it would seem to me that you have a constitutional crisis that goes deeper than the political sleaze. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
The Catch-22 you mention manifests itself in that, as I mentioned in the diary, the PP can both claim that Catalonia is Spain (therefore, independence would not be entertained) and that Catalans are foreign (therefore, they can't be trusted).
"Spanish Nationalist Centralist" is my ideological description of this group. Most of them are in the PP but there is a substantial minority in the PSOE, too (the PSOE being majoritarily "Spanish Federalist"). The other ideological strands within the PP are "Economic Neoliberalism" and "National Catholicism".
Interestingly, the President of the Congreso, PSOE 'baron' José Bono is both a "Spanish Nationalist Centralist" and a "National Catholic", though economically he's relatively to the left and sociologically he belongs to the PSOE patronage network rather than the PP patronage network in his native region of Castilla-La Mancha (where he was regional President for many years). In ZP's first term he was Minister of Defence and in this term he's a leading voice within the PSOE opposing from a Catholic perspective the latest proposals for liberalizing reform of Abortion laws. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
This is all at a more fundamental level. The PP has even challenged the draft reformed Autonomy Statute for Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha while spearheading the reform of the Valencia Autonoomy Statute (in Valencia they are in power).
If the Catalan Statute fails in the Constitutional Court, this will leave the Andalusian one as the one with the highest level of devolved power and therefore the "model" for the rest. Also, (El Pais in Spanish) the PSOE appears to be threatening with passing the Statute of Castilla-La Mancha in the national Parliament with the votes of the Catalan and Basque nationalists and the opposition of the PP. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
This smacks of a narrative of domination and subjugation vs. resistance which is not without its basis in historical events.
On September 11, Catalonia (Spain) commemorates the 1714 Siege of Barcelona defeat during the War of the Spanish Succession. As a punishment for their support to the claim of Habsburg Archduke Charles to the throne of Spain, institutions and rights of the territories of the Crown of Catalonia and Aragon were abolished by the victorious absolutist Bourbon monarchy in line with the political evolution occurring in other parts of Europe at the same time. In 1980, the restored Generalitat de Catalunya (autonomous Government of Catalonia), as its first public act proclaimed 11 September La Diada, the Catalan National holiday. Organizations and political parties traditionally lay floral offerings at the monuments of Rafael Casanova and General Moragues for their fight against the Bourbon army.
In 1980, the restored Generalitat de Catalunya (autonomous Government of Catalonia), as its first public act proclaimed 11 September La Diada, the Catalan National holiday.
Organizations and political parties traditionally lay floral offerings at the monuments of Rafael Casanova and General Moragues for their fight against the Bourbon army.
This whole episode does explain why the U.K. found it relatively easy to hold the Balearic Islands for so long, (aside from the British Fleet), and why Catalan nationalist sentiment was a card they could and did play in the 18th and early 19th centuries. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
Aragon seems never really to have been properly integrated into Spain any more than Quebec has been well integrated into Anglophone Canada or Ireland was ever integrated into Great Britain. Treaties and superior force don't equal acceptance and assimilation.
Now, now, hold it right there with the historical parallels...
