Federalism Versus Nationalism: the Case of Catalonia
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DOI: 10.2478/tfd-2018-0010 THE FEDERALIST DEBATE Year XXX, N° 1, March 2018 Borderless Debate: European Federalism Facing the Catalonia’s Indipendence Movement Federalism versus Nationalism: the Case of Catalonia Domènec Ruiz Devesa European (and global) federalism came into could be as much as a hundred –, or the being, as a political force, in the aftermath of suppression of cultural minorities in cases in World War II in order to overcome nationalisms which one particular nationalism is dominant and unite in a common political project the over others in a given geographical space. beleaguered nation-states of the Old Continent, This nationalist principle affects the stability of and, progressively, the entire humankind. the currently established political states, while This is still the case today, and to some also complicating decision-making in inter- extent this political philosophy has scored state affairs. one historically important success with the The second principle fosters wars, since the establishment of the European Union, even dogma of absolute sovereignty means that no though it is not yet a fully federal polity. superior power is recognized by the State, and However, nationalist tendencies have proved the state of anarchy reigns among the States. resilient in the West and around the world, The rule of force, instead of the rule of law, and to some extent they have even been prevails. reinvigorated by an unbalanced globalization Federalism on the contrary opposes both process, with its lack of a strong social and nationalist dogmas. Sovereignty is not absolute, political dimension. Thus, nationalism has except perhaps if it were exercised with recently proved victorious, albeit by small humanity to one and all, while different cultural margins, in the United Kingdom, with Brexit, communities could belong to the same political and in the United States, with the election organization provided that they share the same of Donald Trump, a media and business public values and principles. Federalism also personality and vocal supporter of a strictly recognizes the right of autonomy for distinct “America first”and anti-immigrant policy. cultural communities, thus opposing dominant Simply put, nationalism as a doctrine believes nationalisms within nation-states. that culturally homogeneous or dominant In any event, from a federalist point of view, even communities must have their own separate the notion of nation is quite problematic. Renan, political organization in a state form, and that in his famous conference, ended up concluding the exercise of sovereignty over the territory in that it cannot be defined by language, culture or which this community is politically organized history, but by a considerable number of people must be absolute. believing to belong to one community1.Albertini Both assumptions are problematic from the seemed to deny the concept altogether2. point of view of guaranteeing a peaceful This why federalism aims to unite not nations, international order. The first one requires but democratic States, which is an objective either the multiplication of sovereign States in notion characterized by the existence of a strict correspondence of the many identifiable political entity that has the monopoly of the cultural communities – in Europe this number use of force (power) within a given territory, 44 DOI: 10.2478/tfd-2018-0010 THE FEDERALIST DEBATE Year XXX, N° 1, March 2018 and exercises it according to the rule of law. and at some point, even Sardinia and Sicily. This is regardless of whether in the State there This Kingdom then entered in a dynastic is one or more nations, assuming this concept union with Castile in the XV century, with as merely describing a cultural community. the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand. Still, Indeed, it is more accurate to say that States Catalan is not only spoken in Catalonia, but created national identities through centralized also in Valencia and the Balearic islands. education systems and military conscription, Since the passing of the Spanish Constitution in than the other way around. 1978, Spain is in fact a federal State, the fourth The European Union is the concrete realization most decentralized of the OECD. Catalonia of this ideal: the old European nation-States, has enjoyed since then self-government, determined to avoid more wars in the endowed with a regional parliament with continent, decided to pool their sovereignties quasi-exclusive legislative competencies in in an increasing number of fields, effectively many fields, including education and culture. setting up a multilingual and multicultural Thus, there is not a clear historical or legal basis political project, even if a common European for the exercise of external self-determination cultural conscience is also acknowledged. in the case of Catalonia, since according to the The Catalan independence movement, United Nations a territory can legally secede supported by no more than 48% of the from a State in cases of military occupation, electorate according to the outcome of the colonialism, cultural discrimination, or September 2015 regional poll, could be seen as continued and massive human rights yet another example of a nationalist backlash, violations, called, in this last instance, after the fostered by the economic and financial crisis case of Kosovo, the“remedy secession”. and the existence in a substantial part of the The other driving force behind the nationalist population of a strong identity feeling, seen as drive in Catalonia, aside from the successful incompatible with Spanish citizenship. construction of an exclusive national identity, at The Catalan question, though quite complex least for half of the population, is a perception and influenced by a diversity of variables, of unfair redistributive policies vis à vis other clearly revolves around the old questions of regions in Spain, which is typical of other rich national identity and wealth redistribution3, territories in Europe (Veneto in Italy, Flanders some other conjunctional factors in Belgium, etc.) notwithstanding, such as the annulment by Indeed, in 2012, the nationalist president the Spanish Constitutional Court of a number of Catalonia, Artur Mas, launched a bid for of articles of the revised Statute of Autonomy independence after the central government in 2010, after having been approved by rejected his claim of allowing the region popular referendum in the region. to collect all taxes and to contribute to the Catalan nationalism has created the notion common national budget as much as it of a Catalan nation mainly on the basis of the received in transfers from it, thus nullifying any Catalan language4, which is a Latin language redistributive effect. closely related to Italian, French and Spanish, In 2014, the nationalist movement unilaterally since there has never been an independent organised an informal referendum for Catalan state. Historically speaking, the old independence, in which less than half of the county of Barcelona joined the Kingdom of electorate participated. In 2015, nationalist Aragon in the Middle Ages, which was then parties failed to achieve at least 50% of the vote much larger than present-day Catalonia, in the regional election, but they nonetheless including Aragon,Valencia, the Balearic islands pursued their independence agenda. Finally, on 45 DOI: 10.2478/tfd-2018-0010 THE FEDERALIST DEBATE Year XXX, N° 1, March 2018 Borderless Debate: European Federalism Facing the Catalonia’s Indipendence Movement 6-7 of September 2017, the pro-independence Furthermore, European federalism could majority in the Catalan parliament passed two not endorse the indiscriminate birth of new unconstitutional bills that were used as the sovereign States in Europe, thereby affecting legal base for a self-determination referendum the strength and stability of the Union, and to be held on October 1st. Again, no more eventually complicating the decision making than 40% participated in an unconstitutional process, provided that the Union were to survive referendum with no independent recounting the challenges of intra-state nationalisms body, according to the nationalists themselves. not only in Spain, but elsewhere. It is not by On the basis of this so-called referendum, the chance that the United States Supreme Court regional parliament, with the absence of most declared that the American federation was“an of the opposition, declared independence indestructible Union of indestructible States”, on the 27th of October. On the same day, the thus enforcing the principle of territorial Spanish Senate voted in favor of intervening in integrity in a two way dimension, at the state Catalonia’s autonomy, using as a legal base the and the federal levels. mechanism of federal execution contemplated Thirdly, independence based on economic in Article 155 of the Constitution, which was claims of redistribution issues, apart from copied from Article 37 of the Fundamental Law having been grossly exaggerated by of the German Federal Republic. nationalists5, is in contradiction with the The Catalan pro-independence movement solidarity principle, a fundamental value of therefore appears to contradict several both federalism and the European Union. federalist principles, both in substance and in All in all, micro-nationalisms, whether in Spain methodology. or in any other Member State, are a regressive First, the Catalan nation, as a cultural and negative force for the European integration community, is already fully self-determined