Catalan separatism
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Catalan separatism is a political movement which supports the independence of Catalonia from Spain and France. It is sometimes extended to the so-called "Catalan Countries", the whole Catalan-speaking domain (or even to its extension to the political entities were Catalan has some official status).
The Estelada flag, in its blue and red versions, has become its main symbol.
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[edit] History
Some Catalan separatist authors argue that first precedents of Catalan separatism may date back as far as 1640, with the unsuccessful first Catalan Republic after Reaper's War, and subsequently during the War of the Spanish Succession. However, in the modern sense, the first political parties which started defining themselves as separatists were created between the 1920s and the 1930s in Spanish Catalonia. The main separatist party created at this time was Estat Català and its branch called Bandera Negra, although Estat Català never achieved widespread success and remained a small party.
After the Spanish Civil War, members of Estat Català and Nosaltres Sols founded the Front Nacional de Catalunya which became the main pro-independence party. However, one might argue that modern Catalan separatism was actually born in the 1960s with the Partit Socialista d'Alliberament Nacional (PSAN). Since then, the pro-independence movement has assumed a mostly left-wing political trend and has often shifted its focus from "independence for Catalonia" to "independence for the 'Catalan Countries'". By the 1970s, the PSAN split into several factions, and many other groups appeared, including the armed organization Terra Lliure. In the 1980s, the Moviment de Defensa de la Terra (MDT) became the major pro-independence political group but this too became divided by the end of the decade. During the 1990s, existing political parties such as Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and the linguistic-national initiative Crida a la Solidaritat progressively evolved towards a more pro-independence stance.
[edit] Modern separatism
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Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya is currently the only organization campaigning explicitly for independence represented in the Catalan Parliament. They won a 7.86% of the total Catalan votes in the last 2008 general elections.
A number of members and voters of Convergència i Unió (CiU), the party with the majority of seats at the regional parliament also give less explicit support to separatism. Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya has attracted since 2007 a number of independentists into its ranks by means of the Casa Gran del Catalanisme, a project which, among other causes, includes the defense of the self-determination of Catalonia. Also in the left wing party Iniciativa per Catalunya are several members that support separatism.
Other independentist smaller parties or coalitions, without present representation in any parliament, are Estat Català, Unitat Nacional de Catalunya, Endavant, the PSAN, the MDT and the CUP. There are also youth sections such as the Maulets, el jovent independentista revolucionari or the Coordinadora d'Assemblees de Joves de l'Esquerra Independentista, and the students' organizations SEPC and FNEC.
In recent years Catalan independentism reasons have received modest support from individuals coming from a broader political spectrum other than the usual left or far-left Catalan nationalism. This phenomenon includes the liberal economist Xavier Sala i Martín [1], also liberal economist Ramon Tremosa Balcells, that will lead CiU's ticket for the European parlament in the 2009 election, lawyer and FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta or the jurist and former member of the Consejo General del Poder Judicial Alfons López Tena
The think tank Cercle d'Estudis Sobiranistes, led by the jurists Alfons López Tena and Hèctor López Bofill was founded in 2007; it has since lobbied that has summoned a number of lawmakers, professors, businessmen, professionals, economists, journalists and intellectuals for the cause of Catalonia's independence.
In Spain, some[who?] considered this current to have have been stimulated as a reaction especially against the policy of the latter Spanish governments of the Partido Popular party, and its opposition to certain legislative reforms such as the new proposal of Statute of Catalonia.
[edit] Studies on social support to separatism in Catalonia
Polls on the matter are troublesome, since the question of independence is not in the daily political agenda, something which may be distorting replies from the interviewed. Besides, polls from different institutions are hardly comparable among them.
Still, some sources suggest a core support of no more than a fifth of Catalans adhering to the idea of independence[2].
[edit] Polls
A few institutions have performed polls which also include questions on the independence issue in Catalonia. The following are the most prominent ones: (1) Center for Social Research (Centro de Investigaciones Sociales CIS) which belongs to the Spanish government, (2) Social and Political Sciencies Institute of Barcelona (Institut de Ciències Polítiques i Socials ICPS) belonging to the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Diputation of Barcelona, and (3) Center for Opinion Studies (Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió CEO), depending on the Economy Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia.
CIS perfomed a poll in Catalonia on 2001, including an explicit question on independence with the following results: 35,9% supporting it, 48,1% opposing, 13,3% indifferent, 2,8% did not reply[citation needed].
ICPS performs annually an opinion poll since 1989, which always includes a section on independence.
All in all, polls seem to indicate an ambivalent and far from universal feeling. For example, the 2007 ICPS poll indicated that, when asked about the independence of Catalonia, 51% of the population would be against it, 32% would favour it, while 17% do not have an opinion, but, in this same poll, when asked about the meaning of Spain, only 5% of the interviewed identified with the downright independentist option ("Spain is an alien State of which my country is not a part").[3]
The results are in the following table:
| Year | Support (%) | Against (%) | Indifferent (%) | Do not reply (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 35 | 50 | 11 | 4 |
| 1992 | 31 | 53 | 11 | 5 |
| 1993 | 37 | 50 | 9 | 5 |
| 1994 | 35 | 49 | 14 | 3 |
| 1995 | 36 | 52 | 10 | 3 |
| 1996 | 29 | 56 | 11 | 4 |
| 1997 | 32 | 52 | 11 | 5 |
| 1998 | 32 | 55 | 10 | 3 |
| 1999 | 32 | 55 | 10 | 3 |
| 2000 | 32 | 53 | 13 | 3 |
| 2001 | 33 | 55 | 11 | 1 |
| 2002 | 34 | 52 | 12 | 1 |
| 2003* | 43 | 43 | 12 | 1 |
| 2004* | 39 | 44 | 13 | 3 |
| 2005 | 36 | 44 | 15 | 6 |
| 2006 | 33 | 48 | 17 | 2 |
| 2007 | 31,7 | 51,3 | 14,1 | 2,9 |
- On 2003 and 2004 a different methodology was used (telephonic instead of door-to-door interview).
CEO performs regular polls studying political opinion of Catalan citizens. The following table contains the answers to the question "Which kind of political entity should Catalonia be with respect to Spain?"[4]:
| Date | An independent state (%) | A state in a federal Spain (%) | A Spanish autonomous community (%) | A Spanish region (%) | Do not know (%) | Do not reply (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2005 | 13,6 | 31,3 | 40,8 | 7,0 | 6,2 | 1,1 |
| November 2005 | 12,9 | 35,8 | 37,6 | 5,6 | 6,9 | 1,2 |
| March 2006 | 13,9 | 33,4 | 38,2 | 8,1 | 5,1 | 1,2 |
| July 2006 | 14,9 | 34,1 | 37,3 | 6,9 | 6,1 | 0,7 |
| October 2006 | 14,0 | 32,9 | 38,9 | 8,3 | 5,1 | 0,8 |
| November 2006 | 15,9 | 32,8 | 40,0 | 6,8 | 3,7 | 0,8 |
| March 2007 | 14,5 | 35,3 | 37,0 | 6,1 | 4,9 | 2,2 |
| July 2007 | 16,9 | 34,0 | 37,3 | 5,5 | 5,4 | 1,0 |
| October 2007 | 18,5 | 34,2 | 35,0 | 4,7 | 6,0 | 1,5 |
| Desember 2007 | 17,3 | 33,8 | 37,8 | 5,1 | 5,0 | 1,0 |
| January 2008 | 19,4 | 36,4 | 34,8 | 3,8 | 4,1 | 1,6 |
| May 2008[5] | 17,6 | 33,4 | 38,9 | 5,1 | 4,3 | 0,7 |
| July 2008[6] | 16,1 | 34,7 | 37,0 | 6,1 | 5,2 | 0,9 |
| November 2008[7] | 17,4 | 31,8 | 38,3 | 7,1 | 4,2 | 1,2 |
| February 2009[8] | 16,1 | 35,2 | 38,6 | 4,5 | 3,6 | 2,0 |
| May 2009[9] | 20,9 | 35,0 | 34,9 | 4,4 | 3,0 | 1,7 |
[edit] The independentist question in the other Catalan speaking territories
The question of independence has not been polled so far in other Catalan-speaking territories outside of Catalonia, but anecdotal evidence (basically the total absence of the independentist question in those territories) suggests that there is no sizeable support for the idea of independence of the Catalan speaking territories outside of Catalonia.
[edit] See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Catalonia Independence movement |
- List of active autonomist and secessionist movements
- Catalan Republic
- Catalan Countries
- Catalan nationalism
- History of Catalonia
- Catalan language
- Anti-Catalanism
- Racó Català. web portal related to Catalan separatism.
[edit] References
- ^ Sala-i-Martin's Independence
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://www.icps.es/archivos/sondeigs/SC2007.pdf
- ^ Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió Poll results
- ^ Baròmetre d'Opinió Política. Maig 2008PDF (2.11 MB)
- ^ Baròmetre d'Opinió Política. Juliol 2008PDF (1.89 MB)
- ^ Baròmetre d'Opinió Política. Novembre 2008PDF (1.52 MB)
- ^ Baròmetre d'Opinió Política. Febrer 2009PDF (1.52 MB)
- ^ Baròmetre d'Opinió Política. Maig 2009PDF (1.52 MB)
[edit] External links
- Free Catalonia
- Party Urging More Autonomy From Spain Seems to Win in Catalonia Article on New York Times, November 2, 2006
- Courage in Catalonia Article on New York Times, June 22, 2006
- Voters in Catalonia Approve A Plan for Greater Autonomy Article on New York Times, June 19, 2006
- Spain Moves On Law to Give Broad Powers To Catalonia Article on New York Times, March 31, 2006
- Independentist sites at the Open Directory Project. (Catalan)
- History of Catalan independentism. Dossier of the Catalan magazine El Temps. (Catalan)
- Estatpropi.Cat, Webpage to count and to show the support to create an own state for the Catalan Countries
