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Catalonia has always been a bit of a weird melting pot of middle-class bourgeois conservatism and left-wing socialism and anarchism, and there's always been tensions among them and different reasons for wanting independence.
This is spot on. The students at the UB were very much on the left. The middle-aged men who swore at me on the tube ('puta sudaca' or 'sudaca de mierda') because I speak Spanish with a Puerto Rican accent were very much not.
On the ancient rivalries thing - I mean, in whichever context those come up, they are most always a story told today about yesterday to mobilise people who might otherwise disagree around a common goal. While I believe identities are deeply felt, I also think they can be quite fluid and multi-layered - which is why people spend so much time telling each other who they are and how they should accordingly feel.
h2o-
That's a pretty horrible experience you've had with Catalan nationalism - what are your overriding feelings about it now?
I wish I knew more, or had time to read more, about contemporary Spain and Spanish politics, because what I do know I find fascinating.
The post-dictatorship period, the reinstallation of the monarchy, the 'democratisation', the attempted coup, ETA and now this seemingly as the next chapter.
Is there anyone suggesting that it's perhaps time for a new settlement, and questioning the ongoing suitability of the monarchy and the constitution now it's served its immediate purpose of helping the transition to democracy?
tbc
I've got a friend who is very Catalan but justifies it from quite a centre-right position about taxation and redistribution and how Catalonia is propping up the rest of Spain. Which is true but not the easiest argument to support.
A very similar conservative case for nationalism was being put forward by Catalan separatists in the mid-1930s, before the Civil War.
Catalonia has always been a bit of a weird melting pot of middle-class bourgeois conservatism and left-wing socialism and anarchism, and there's always been tensions among them and different reasons for wanting independence.
The intransigence of the Spanish government and the inflexibility of the constitution seems to be doing a great job of uniting a lot of competing interests though.