The politics of and sentiments in Spain’s Catalonia beg a question about one-state solutions, writes Gershom Gorenberg in The American Prospect. And he notes, nationalism is “alive and well in Europe,” so asking Israelis and Palestinians to abandon it may not be a realistic request.
A few excerpts:
From the balconies above the narrow stone-paved streets of Girona hung gold-and-red striped flags. A blue triangle and white star adorned most of them, transforming the banner of the autonomous region of Catalonia into the standard of Catalonian independence. Here and there a legend emblazoned a flag: Catalunya, Nou Estat D’Europa—”Catalonia, A New State in Europe.”….
….I looked at the flags and thought of the arguments about how to solve the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio, about political scientist Ian Lustick’s very recent New York Times essay despairing of a two-state outcome, and about the furies that the late Tony Judt released almost precisely 10 years ago when he came out for a one-state solution. Nationalism was passé, the great historian of modern Europe wrote; nation-states had been replaced by “pluralist states which have long since become multiethnic and multicultural… as any visitor to London or Paris or Geneva will know.”
In Catalonia, as any visitor to Girona or Barcelona will know, nationalism is alive and very 21st-century. In mid-September over a million and a half people—a fifth the region’s population—formed a chain the length of Catalonia to demand independence from Spain. Since the end of the Franco era, Catalonia has been on a long march toward ever greater autonomy from the central government in Madrid. The Franco regime repressed the Catalan language. Today the regional government works in Catalan, schools teach in it, and a language law requires businesses to use it. That menu, fair visitor, is in Catalan, not Spanish. The restaurateur does not get to choose.
I lived in Spain and wrote for The Christian Science Monitor from Madrid from 1975 – 1978, arriving before the death of dictator Francisco Franco and leaving after Spanish voters approved the first post-Franco democracy constitution, a shift greatly encouraged by King Juan Carlos. During that whole time Catalonia simmered as an issue and some had predicted that even in a democratic Spain, its national aspirations would not diminish.
Media reports on demands for independence often stress finances: Better-off Catalonia is tired of paying more to Madrid than it gets back. Regional President Artur Mas includes that problem in his case for secession. But let’s not fall into lazy economic determinism. If giving more to a federal government than you receive in return was reason enough to demand self-determination, you’d see million-person rallies for independence in California and New York. The economic argument resonates in Barcelona because so many Catalans feel that their shared language, culture and history give them a national identity separate from Spain, and want to express that identity in their own state. This is nationalism, and it’s the platform of Catalan parties on both the left and the right.
North of the Pyrenees, there’s further evidence that post-nationalist pluralism hasn’t progressed quite as far as Judt claimed. On a Paris street, a young Muslim woman can choose to wear fashionably color-coordinated pastel pants, blouse, and hijab. But a 2004 law requires her to take off her headscarf to attend a public school, or to teach in one. This year’s controversies include an unpopular court decision that permits a woman wearing a hijab to work in a private nursery school, and the question of whether a headscarfed mother can accompany her child’s class trip. Calls to extend the legal ban on the hijab have come from politicians on the left as well as the right.
He notes that in France “the principle of a state based on shared national identity has worked in the opposite direction from Catalonia” and explores the move for a one-state solution in the Middle East. Here’s his conclusion:
The challenge to one-staters is to explain how two national groups, Jews and Palestinians, will peacefully put together a single state, live together in that state, and prevent it from ripping apart. Expecting that their nationalism will disappear is even less realistic than expecting the gold, red and blue flag to vanish from Catalonia.
Read it in its entirety.
And note the news stories:
Bloomberg:
The Catalan government is targeting a seat on the European Central Bank’s governing council after the referendum it plans to secede from Spain, regional finance chief Andreu Mas-Colell said.
“Being a member of full standing in the European Union means that,” Mas-Colell said in an interview at his office in Barcelona this week. “We are in favor of having our own state, which would give us solidity and standing in the international community.”
Leaders of Catalonia, with a 194 billion-euro ($262 billion) economy and its own language and parliament, are seeking independence from Spain, the euro region’s fourth-largest economy. Catalan President Artur Mas is planning a referendum next year and is drawing European institutions into the dispute with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has said any vote would be illegal.
While Catalans have becoming increasingly supportive of independence — 52 percent want to split from Spain and 81 percent want a chance to vote, according to a survey of 800 people by polling company My Word last month — the region’s autonomy within Spain has been curbed over the past year after Mas accepted a bailout from the Spanish state.
To counter that campaign, groups opposed to independence have planned a demonstration today in Barcelona’s emblematic Plaça de Catalunya. The date is no accident. The organisers, civic group Som Catalunya, Somos España (We are Catalonia, We are Spain) have declared “Now, more then ever, it is crucial to celebrate the national day of Spain to strengthen the ties that unite Catalans with other Spaniards.”
The demonstration will have the support of a handful of political parties, including the Partido Popular (PP), the conservatives who govern Spain and are resisting the proposed independence referendum on the grounds it is unconstitutional.
Today’s event is not expected to be nearly as big as a “human chain” that pro-independence activists and parties held across Catalonia last month. However, the build-up has been laced with logistical and political disputes, showing how far off a consensual solution appears.
A major concern for organisers is the likely involvement of extreme right-wing groups. While last month’s separatist human chain was taking place, masked men burst into the Catalan regional government’s headquarters in Madrid, shouting anti-independence slogans and threatening politicians.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.