Catalonia, a region in Northeastern Spain with a unique culture, language, and identity. A culture and history you can argue that is distinctly not “Spanish”.
Catalonia has seemed to have it’s identity trapped within the walls of Spain throughout it’s history. Before the kingdoms of Castille and Aragon combined their lands in the 15th century (this would later become modern day Spain), Catalonia was largely independent. It wasn’t until later centuries of Spanish conquest that Catalonia found itself on the losing side of a series of wars, which led to it’s absorption into Spain. But despite this, the Catalan culture and economy remained vibrant and vehemently independent.
Fast forward to the 1930’s in Catalonia. Nationalism is running high and the Spanish Civil War is in full effect in the region. The Catalans recognized the void and decided to fight for their independence.However, despite their efforts the separatist would lose. That resulted in a win for Francisco Franco, a dictator backed by Nazi Germany. He went on to suppress civil liberties by banning the Catalan language, books, and other cultural events. He imprisoned and killed many Catalan leaders and activists in the process. This suppression would last until 1975 when Franco died.
Now the argument for the separation of Spanish and Catalan culture in it’s essence could be chalked up as subjective. People perhaps might say that they are different yet synonymous, along the lines of a symbiotic relationship. But one thing that isn’t subjective (or symbiotic) is Catalonia’s huge economic contributions to Spain’s overall GDP (Catalonia’s nominal GDP in 2014 was €200 billion the highest in Spain). Which is excellent for Spain’s tax revenue, but undermines a majority of Catalans who feel as if they’re being ‘robbed’ by the central government in Madrid. Because often, the way the tax revenue is used neglects Catalonia’s regional interests. Giving way for feelings of neglect and exploitation. Symbiotic relationships require two parties to benefit, but by definition when only one party benefits it becomes a PARASITIC relationship. It’s these idiosyncratic differences (both cultural and economic) that have put the region at odds with the Spain’s central government throughout history, and even more so in our modern political sphere.
The modern Catalan sentiment is that the region does more for Spain in terms of the economy than what it gets in return from Spain. That frustration, mixed with the Catalan historical identity has been fuel for recent separatist movements. Recently the regional Catalan parliament passed a law on Sept. 6th 2017 to hold a referendum on independence, Spain’s national government said it was illegal and filed a complaint to the National Constitutional Court. Spain ruled that the referendum was unconstitutional. Nevertheless the Catalans went on with referendum process. Spain responded by shutting down the referendums website, sending the police to stop any polls that had been set up for the referendum, and they confiscated about 10 million ballot papers/ millions of advertising posters. Successfully suppressing the democratic process. Additionally, around 700 of Catalonia’s about 900 mayors are being held under investigation for their role for preparing the referendum. Many of them could possibly face bans on holding democratically elected public office. Despite this many of them will continue to represent their constituents in Catalonia.
At the moment it’s unclear what’s going to happen in Spain amidst this democratic and political crisis. Things seem to be a bit rocky in terms of institutional implementation. Regardless, the world is watching.
Sources: AP
https://www.britannica.com/place/Catalonia
My Junior Year Research Paper
and Wikipedia for dates
Sermo Civilis 