The Guardian: The Catalans' quandary

Author: Josep Ramoneda / The Guardian 31 març 2011

The Basque country and Catalonia have always dreamed of having their own national sports teams, much like those of the different countries of Britain. Asked about this years ago while he was still playing football, Pep Guardiola (now the Barcelona manager) responded: "Yes, the Catalan team, the Basque team, great, but what would we call the other one?"

Here Guardiola succeeded, probably unwittingly, in summarising Spain's political landscape. Calling the "other" team Spanish would effectively mean accepting that Catalonia and the Basque country aren't part of Spain. The lack of a name to encompass all of Spain except the regions or "nations" that had enjoyed statutory separation during the second republic was resolved in the 1978 constitution by multiplying the number of constituencies, creating as many as 17 "autonomous communities". The result has been a system that's highly decentralised in economic terms, yet highly centralised in respect to political decision-making.

This system was the ratified response to demands fuelled by resistance to General Franco's regime. The demands for statutory autonomy went hand in hand with the two key slogans of the transition to democracy: liberty and amnesty. The euphemism "nationalities" was adopted to denominate Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia, while Spain was construed as an autonomous state made up by regions and these nationalities.

But the debate has remained open ever since. The historic nations have always felt their autonomy to be inadequate and have never ceased to state their case. Meanwhile, the Catalan and Basque separatist movements have continued to throb. Eta, which has now, according to official figures, killed more than 800 people, blocking the development of democracy in Euskadi (as the Basque country is called in the native language) is effectively one of the last remnants of Franco's regime that democratic Spain has had to tolerate.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero won the 2004 elections with a manifesto promoting "plural Spain". He wanted to distance himself from proposals announced by his predecessor, José María Aznar, during the latter's second term, which advocated a shift towards the end of the autonomous state. With a strong electoral base in Catalonia, Zapatero opened the way for statutory reform by dangling the carrot of a truly federal state. But he left the proposals on the shelf, and people's hopes largely evaporated when Catalonia's new statute was mutilated by Spain's central constitutional court, in thrall to the opposition PP (People's party).

Thirty years after the autonomous-community state was created, it is proving ill-suited to the aspirations of the peripheral "nations", particularly Catalonia and the Basque country. It has become clear that there is no real federal or confederal culture. And the governing PSOE (Socialist Workers' party) has refused to cede to the PP the role of redirecting the autonomous-community state.

The situation has now entered a new phase. The failure of Eta's 2006 ceasefire and the police's efforts to isolate the organisation have suffocated this last bastion of European terrorism. The people are sick of violence, and Eta no longer has support from abroad. The Basque country is preparing to live through a moment of great change, of progress towards normality – so long as the process is not thwarted by some faction of the Spanish rightwing, terrified that the organisation's disappearance will deprive them of an alibi for holding up the march of Basque independence.

The frustration born of the difficulties of securing further autonomy has also fuelled the Catalan independence movement, with polls placing support at between 30 and 50%. Where in the past this movement was marginal, its corresponding vote concentrated within one minor political party, it has now grown and spread out demographically, and the number of parties is now more like half a dozen.

Thirty years on, the question of the political makeup of the Spanish state remains open. The financial crisis has overtaken other priorities for now. The conservative nationalists now governing Catalonia again – after seven years of leftwing administration – alternate between economic orthodoxy and making subtle intimations of sovereignty to an electorate that is palpably dissatisfied with the Spanish state.

As ever, Europe appears to be the hypothetical solution. Were Europe more politically developed, less constrained by the sovereign powers of the member states, perhaps Catalonia and the Basque country – like Flanders or Scotland – would find themselves more comfortable than they are within their state-drawn lines. But all this belongs to the future of the worn-out land we call Europe, which is struggling to come to terms with losing its spotlight on the global stage. For now, Zapatero has lost the baton of plural Spain – and no one has worked out where to find it.