Hidden nationalism: the nature and configuration of Spanish nationalism

ABSTRACT

Spanish nationalism has been a controversial issue among scholars, to the extent that even its existence has been questioned. In this study, the characteristics of Spanish nationalist feeling are analyzed. We use content analysis of newspapers during the ‘Catalan challenge,’ a period of open conflict between the Catalan pro-independence political forces and the Spanish State. During the ‘Catalan challenge’, the characteristics of Spanish nationalism became more visible, making this period an opportunity to carrying out this analysis. The results point to a nationalism with unique characteristics, that we have called Hidden Nationalism. These findings could have key implications for the analysis of political attitudes in Spain.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 The CIS barometers indicate that the nationalist feeling in Catalonia (‘I feel only Catalan’) had risen from 13.9% in 2006 to 23.6% in 2015. The percentage of people who felt ‘more Catalan than Spanish’ rose from 19% in 1995 to 24.4% in 2017. Additionally, the proportion of the population who defined themselves as Catalan nationalists grew from 35.9% in 2006 to 41.5% in 2017 (with peaks of 49% and 46.8% in 2012 and 2015, respectively), while the percentage of Catalans who said the opposite decreased from 61.1% to 54.1% during the same period.

2 The procés, or Catalan process, implies the process to achieve Catalonia’s self-determination and independence from Spain.

3 Related to the pressure from Catalan ‘nationalists’ for the Spanish Government to convene a discussion panel with the Government of Catalonia in exchange for its support for declaring a State of Emergency; the declarations made against Royal Decree 463/2020 (under which the State assumed jurisdictional authority over public health, Home Affairs, and transport), which described it as a ‘covert Article 155’ (Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution provides for a coercive mechanism of the State to force the autonomous communities that fail to comply with the obligations imposed by the Constitution or other laws, to compulsorily comply with said obligations) and a ‘unionist propaganda campaign’; and the accusations of the rest of the opposition that the Spanish Government was conceding to blackmail (Ferrero & Escribano, 2020).

4 The nation is ‘an everyday plebiscite’ (Renan, 1993, p. 38).

5 Political cynicism involves questioning ‘the moral motives and ethical values of politicians and political behavior, considering that these motives and values were violated in practice’ (Maravall, 1981).

6 This issue must be related to the patriotic exaltation characteristic of the Franco dictatorship, expressed, for example, in the emphasis on patriotic symbols (such as the flag or the anthem), which were maintained –with the exception of the shield – when the transition to democracy occurred.

7 This approach, known as the ‘the pact school’ (Edles, 1990, 1995), combines rational choice theories with an institutionalist analysis (Morán, 2011).

8 However, this perception has been relaxing over the years since the transition, so currently, national symbols are used by some political parties. In general, right-wing and center-right parties are more inclined to display national symbols, while left-wing or center-left parties are not very inclined to do so. Just like the media. There is a tendency for right-wing media to display nationalism more openly, while those on the left often avoid it, for fear of associating themselves with the historical context of Franco's Spain and conservative ideologies. However, despite the differences in nuance, the different media hide their nationalism. This is due, on the one hand, to Spanish political culture, and, on the other, because democracy and constitutionalism cannot be understood without separating themselves from Francoism. The concealment of nationalism by both the right and the left points to the need to forge a democratic future separate from the authoritarian past.

9 Habit here refers to Bourdieu’s ‘habitus.’ National identity can be viewed as a type of habitus. Tim Edensor noted that it is a set of ‘everyday competencies,’ ‘embodied habits,’ and ‘simultaneous’: ‘acquired skills which minimize unnecessary reflection (…).’ (Edensor, 2006, p. 532).

10 Many people were accused of separatism only for speaking Catalan.

11 Identificadas con los separatistas y con los que querían romper la unidad de España (Conversi, 1997, p. 110).

12 Also called Catalan challenge, the term was used to describe movements or political positions advocating for greater autonomy or independence for certain regions within Spain. The term is often associated with the push for Catalan independence from Spain. The Catalan government sought to hold referendums (in 2014 and 2017) and pursue a path toward secession, leading to political tensions with the Spanish government. None of these referenda was officially authorized by the central government.

13 Among Spain-wide non-sports newspapers.

14 Data from General Media Study (known as ‘EGM’ by its initials in Spanish) on national generalist dailies for the first quarter of 2020.

15 ‘Mythologeme’ means the diacritic or genetic-structural elements that are invoked as belonging to the community such as language, land, volksgeist, tradition, and a differential history (Varela, 1991).

16 See appendix.

17 All press articles that implicitly or explicitly referred to nationalism in each of the newspapers during the period considered in the research were selected.

18 These codes were: organization of the state, statute of autonomy, jurisdictional authority, self-determination, national identity, mythologemes (flag, anthem, language), referendum, sovereignty, separatism, rupture, secession, unity, friend-enemy dialectic, war-like vocabulary, Spanish nationalism and patriotism, use of justice, economic threat of nationalism, and use of the EU as a weapon against nationalism.

19 Reliability was assessed by applying Cohen’s kappa coefficient to 10% of the sample:

$K={\displaystyle \frac{[(\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{agreements}\mathrm{observed})-(\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{random}\mathrm{agreements})]}{[(\mathrm{total}\mathrm{observations})-(\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{random}\mathrm{agreements})]}}$

The kappa coefficient (κ) takes values of between −1 and +1. The closer κ is to +1, the higher the degree of inter-rater agreement. A value of κ = 0 reflects that the observed agreement is due to chance.

20 The Partido Popular [Popular Party] (PP) is the main conservative party in Spain.

21 Convergencia i Unió (CIU) was the main nationalist and conservative political formation in Catalonia.

22 Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) was initially a political coalition and later became a Spanish political party that played a key role during the transition to democracy. It was the head of the Spanish government between 1977 and 1982.

23 The President was the President of Spain, not of another country. He was placed within an imaginary of closeness and proximity; reference was made to him being ‘ours.’ If reference was made to another leader, they would be described in greater detail, such as the English Prime Minister.

24 President of the Government at that time.

25 October 12 was established by law as the National Day of Spain. According to the law that established the holiday, its purpose is to "solemnly remember the different moments of collective history that are part of the common historical, cultural and social heritage" of Spain. This day is also called the Fiesta de la Hispanidad and is celebrated on this date because it is the anniversary of the so-called ‘discovery’ of America (arrival of the expedition led by Christopher Columbus to the Guanahaní island, in the Bahamas). The Franco regime opted for another name for this holiday, ‘Race Day,’ with the symbolic load that said name implies.

26 Josep Tarradellas was a Spanish politician, President of the Government of Catalonia. He was in exile from 1954 until 1977 and was the President of the provisional Government of Catalonia from that date until 1980. On October 23, 1977, Tarradellas returned to Catalonia from exile as President of Catalonia and delivered the famous speech that began with Ja sóc aquí [I am back] from the balcony of the Government seat. His return from exile symbolized the recovery of the institution for the self-government of Catalonia.

27 Artur Mas, President of the Government of Catalonia at that time, had to testify before the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, charged with convening an alternative referendum held on November 9, 2014.

28 Note that the format of ABC changed its front-page format in 2014, when the classic front page was replaced by a highly symbolic graphic front page (‘full photo front page'). This attempts to show the main news issue of the day by using a single headline on a single photograph or image that occupies the entire front page.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adrián Megías

Adrián Megías is Lecturer of Political Science at the University of Almería (Spain). He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Murcia and has been a research fellow at the Spanish Center for Sociological Research (CIS), at ICS-ULisboa (Instituto de Ciências Sociais of the Universidade de Lisboa), and at the Université Catholique de Lille (ESPOL). His research has focused on political attitudes, political behavior, and party politics.

Cristina Moreno

Cristina Moreno is Professor of Political Science at the University of Murcia (Spain), PhD in Government and Public Administration from the Universidad Complutense (Madrid). He has the Postgraduate Diploma in Social Data Analysis (University of Essex, United Kingdom), as well as the Dîplome International of the Institut d'Études Politiques. She is the author of research articles and chapters in collective works. Her research has focused on political attitudes, political behavior and political communication. Currently, she studies the change in attitudes towards the political system, the communication of public policies and the change in political communication in the field of Public Administration.