Is there a Spanish nationalism? Absolutely yes. Forty years of Francoist dictatorship deeply embedded it as a latent threat with occasional outburst of brutality. And there remains ignominious symbols which offend to all democrats, as the fascist sanctuary at the Valle de los Caídos or the unopened mass graves. Spain is, after Cambodia, the country with more mass graves in the world. It is, like any other exacerbated nationalism, obtuse, disgusting and potentially violent.
However, it is residual, and it does nothing to do with the response that the democratic state and civic society are confronting to other nationalism with a maximum programme: Catalan secessionism. There are symbolic details that, in its anecdotal appearance, reveal the extent of derangement in the nationalist-dye on each side. Just count how many times has Els segadors [the Catalan anthem] sounded in the Catalan Parliament, and compare it with how many times the Spanish anthem has sounded in the Congress. In fact, compare what it is said when the anthem sounds in one place (nothing, respect for their culture) and what would be said if it sounds in the other (Francoist scenography).
In the irredentist nationalist politician, there is only one side, the Catalan process supporters. In the other side —with the mentioned residual exceptions—, there is a constitutional pact. Perfectible, improvable, but open to deepening toward federalism, protection of competences, embracing Catalan national symbols. And the deplorable police baton-charges on the October 1st do not alter the fact that only one of both parts is with a maximum programme, and the other one do not. We all have an ideal aspiration, but only the ideals to which nationalists aspire seem legitimate and “democratic”.
In the face of nationalism, the other side did not propose a total recentralization, but federalization. Why? Because there is only one nationalism in this conflict. That seeks to impose its ideas to half of society and the rest of the country. The levelling in the nationalist contamination is a frame that too many in the rest of Spain have assumed, precisely because we are a country that is very little nationalist. The flags on the balconies rather say “enough is enough”, more than “Long Live Spain”. We are that lucky.
«Stony be the mood», wrote Rilke in Ronda when he was about leaving behind the bucolic landscapes he saw from the Reina Victoria hotel and returning to the big city. And I can not think in a more appropriate lament to express the unease at the perseverance and distress of the ludicrous Catalan process in our media, in our conversations. Contaminating with the nationalist strain our pacific life in a democratic developed country in the 21st century’s Europe.
