# taz.de -- Spotlight Populism: Script writer needed | |
> Nationalisms in Spain – powerful, bloody till recently and one of the | |
> most complex issues for the central government. | |
Bild: People gather with „estelada“ or pro-independence flags | |
Southern European countries are struggling to cope with painfull | |
consequences brought by recession and the euro crisis and, one of them, | |
Spain, has got to deal also with another issue: domestic nationalisms. As | |
deep rooted historic phenomena Basque and Catalonian nationalisms are there | |
for good. It is worthwhile reading the essay “España invertebrada“ written | |
by the thinker José Ortega y Gasset in 1920; he maintains that, | |
historically, when the central power has endorsed challenging and ambitious | |
plans for the whole country Basques and Catalunians have made their best of | |
it. | |
Partly, as the expression of the social malaise caused by the crisis, there | |
is a new party in Spain, a left leaning one, called Podemos, which has | |
dramatically eroded the electoral performance of the Socialist Party ( PSOE | |
). | |
So much so that PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español or Spanish | |
Socialist Workers Party) has got the smallest number of deputies ever in | |
the Spanish Parliament in two consecutive general elections. In the | |
political wrangling that followed PSOE has seen its Secretary General being | |
sacked and the majority of its deputies abstaining in parliament enabling | |
the conservative Partido Popular, the party that won the elections, to form | |
a minority government. | |
PODEMOS smothered its political stance around European issues as the two | |
election campaigns developed. Although the economic criteria set by | |
Brussels has been at the center of bitter debates, against all odds, Spain | |
has not seen the rise of any far right, anti- European party. | |
But we do have an anti- European, anti-system party, it is called CUP or | |
Candidatura de Unidad Popular (Candidature of Popular Unity) that has come | |
to the forefront of Catalonian politics with the latest bid for | |
Independence launched by its regional Government. | |
CUP would propose leaving both the EU and NATO in case Catalunya would | |
secede from Spain. The Catalonian Autonomic Government needs CUP because it | |
lacks the necessary parliamentary backing to pass laws, among them next | |
years’ budgetary law. | |
The most deeply disturbing fact in the current maneuver of the Catalonian | |
government in its bid for independence is the following: in the last | |
Catalonian general elections held in September 2015, the percentage of | |
votes that went to pro-independence parties was 47,7% while parties that | |
are not for secession got 51,7%. Parliamentary arithmetics enabled the | |
formation of a minority pro-independece government whose external life-line | |
is the mentioned CUP. | |
The Catalonian Government is committed to make what it takes to form a new | |
state, or so it says. Questions related to the finances of the Autonomic | |
Communities are at stake in the Catalonian issue. The Catalonian Autonomic | |
Government, or Generalitat, pleads for changes in the finance system that | |
deems detrimental for them. Seemingly, any such change would require a | |
reform of the 1978 Constitution. Neither sheer denial from Madrid nor | |
unilateral secessionist moves from Barcelona are going to be useful. | |
Dialogue would have to prevail. | |
The issue is thorny and requires lots of energy and political intelligence | |
to solve it. The central government headed by the conservative Mariano | |
Rajoy would have to turn necessity into virtue to tackle it. | |
Unlike what is happening in Catalunya with the mainstream nationalists, the | |
Basque Nationalist Party, PNV, having won elections although not with the | |
necessary lead to form a government of its own, has chosen the Basque | |
Socialist Party as the coalition partner. The two parties, with different | |
ideological mindsets, sharing power has been seen as an encouraging event; | |
an opposite example to feud- politics. | |
As Ortega y Gasset would say for Spain, there can be said for the EU, it is | |
necessary to, carefully, listen to partners, to be aware of their | |
expectations and dreams, thus, to be able to make proposals, bold enough, | |
to seduce them to play a role that nobody else could play instead. The play | |
would be the United States of Europe. An outstanding script writer is | |
needed. | |
Ana Aizpiri is journalist for the main channels of Basque Radio and | |
Television. Specialist on Arab and Islamic affairs; studied in Egypt and at | |
the School of Translators of Toledo. | |
26 Jul 2017 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Ana Aizpiri | |
## TAGS | |
Spotlight Populism in Europe | |
taz international | |
taz in English | |
Populismus | |
Katalonien | |
Baskenland | |
taz in English | |
USA | |
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