Unity in diversity

Gennadi Kneper, Ina Mettjes, & Lisa Muench

(...)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.(...)