Has the Basque borderland become more Basque after opening the Franco-Spanish border?

Abstract

For more than a century, state and sub-state nationalisms have competed in the Basque borderland. At present, this competition implies contested imaginations of the Franco-Spanish borderland. This article explores these imaginations in terms of cross-border and intra-state integration. Nationalist rhetoric substantially differs from daily cultural experiences and political practice. Paradoxically, the opening-up of the Franco-Spanish border as a result of European integration and the concomitant rise of cross-border cooperation have confined Basque national integration to the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. In this respect, both the old state border and internal administrative borders in Spain have acted as strong barriers against the diffusion of ethnonationalism.

Keywords:

• Basque Country
• France
• Spain
• nationalism
• culture

Acknowledgements

I owe many thanks to the editor of this journal, Dave Kaplan, and the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions to improve the article.