Spanish High-Speed Rail: Infrastructural Development and Dominance Without Hegemony

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the development of Europe’s foremost high-speed rail (HSR) network, the Spanish AVE (Alta Velocidad Española-Spanish High-Speed Rail). Against the prevalent description of AVE as a project rooted in the consent of the subject population, I argue that it is better understood as a case of dominance without hegemony. I substantiate this claim by turning to two different moments in the history of AVE: its adoption as part of a broader transformation of the transport market; and the struggle against HSR in the Basque Country.

KEYWORDS:

• High-speed rail
• Spain
• infrastructure
• no-TAV
• dominance without hegemony

Acknowledgments

My deepest thanks go out to Jaume Franquesa for his far reaching support. I would like to thank all the participants of the “Financialization and the production of nature” workshop, ultimately the prime movers of this article. Emrah Irzik has yet again been a devoted reader. I cannot end without mentioning Chris Hann’s backing and patience and Salvatore Engel Di-Mauro’s assistance.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Commonly employed name for AVE in the Basque Country.

2 The first cross-border connection of the Spanish railway space in international gauge would have to wait for another 25 years. The Barcelona-Paris connection was inaugurated at the end of 2013.

3 1982-1996: period of uninterrupted governance by PSOE at the national level, under the leadership of Felipe González, Spain's longest-serving prime minister to be freely elected.

4 Published in 1984 and commonly known as the “Roa Report”, after Carlos Roa, the president of the expert committee that authored it.

5 O cerrábamos el chiringuito. “Chiringuito”, literally meaning kiosk, also employed to pejoratively refer to a small or shady business, here referring to the national railway company.

6 Basque for Basque Country.

7 Self-described as a center and center-right Christian-democrat party, historically the majoritarian party of right-wing Basque nationalism.

8 ETA has a history of involvement in the anti-developmental struggles in the Basque Country, prominently in the opposition to the Lemoniz nuclear plant. Elkarlana and the various collectives integrating it had repeatedly reiterated their independence from armed struggle. Unlike what Audikana (2012) suggests, Asamblea contra el TAV, the first to denounce ETA’s intervention in the opposition to TAV, was not a different actor from Elkarlana. It was one of its most important members, alongside other collectives, some identified with the abertzale (nationalist) left. ETA was obviously not a member of Elkarlana and was at the time only one of the actors on the nationalist left, a distinction which Audikana (2012) fails to make, thereby suggesting that the abertzale left was a promoter of the violent intervention of ETA, and in fact indistinguishable from ETA.

9 https://www.diagonalperiodico.net/movimientos/movimiento-reclama-su-autonomia.html. Last accessed May 20th, 2021.