Pulling Together or Pulling Apart? Perspectives on Nationhood, Identity, and Belonging in Europe Susana Bayó Belenguer and Nicola Brady (eds) Peter Lang NATIONALISMS ACROSS THE GLOBE V o l . 21 NATIONALISMS ACROSS THE GLOBE www.peterlang.com In the aftermath of the twentieth century’s raging warfare, attempts were made to create an environment in which new relationships between European nations could be built around a common identity. Yet, in the twenty-first century, identity conflicts are gaining a new intensity in parts of the continent. In the analysis of some sub-state nationalist parties, the prospect of European Union membership reduces the economic and political risks of secession. Meanwhile, to the east, any moves towards expansion of EU membership are viewed by Russia not as a peace project but as acts of aggression. This volume assembles a series of comparative and single -area case studies drawn from different academic disciplines. While interrogating the history of identity conflict in the European context, an essential component of efforts to reduce such conflicts in the future, the authors bring an array of methodological approaches to analyses of the many intersecting political, cultural and economic factors that influence the formation of nationhood and identity, and the resurgence of nationalism. Dr Susana Bayó Belenguer is a lecturer in the Depar tment of Hispanic Studies, Trinity College, Dublin, where she teaches contemporary Spanish politics and histor y, and the representation of histor y in literature and visual media. Her publications have centred on the intellectual and writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and on the Spanish Civil War. She is member of the editorial board of Ediciones Alfar (Spain) and of a Research Network, which is officially recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Education, on the International Brigades. Dr Nicola Brady is a Research Associate with the Department of Hispanic Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Her Ph.D. examined the response of the Catholic Hierarchy to political violence in Nor thern Ireland (1921-1973) and the Basque Country (1936-1975). She is currently employed as General Secretary to the Irish Council of Churches where her work has a particular focus on the contribution of Christian churches to peace, reconciliation and social justice in Ireland, as well as in a wider European and global context. In 2019 she was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship to examine the role of churches and faith communities in overcoming political polarization and social exclusion in the United States. She is a Director of Christian Aid Ireland and the Maximilian Kolbe Foundation. Bayó Belenguer and Brady (eds) Pulling Together or Pulling Apart? 21 Pulling Together or Pulling Apart? Perspectives on Nationhood, Identity, and Belonging in Europe Susana Bayó Belenguer and Nicola Brady (eds) Peter Lang NATIONALISMS ACROSS THE GLOBE V o l . 2 1 Pulling Together or Pulling Apart? Oxford · Bern · Berlin · Bruxelles · New York · Wien PETER LANG NATIONALISMS ACROSS THE GLOBE VOL. 21 SERIES EDITORS Dr Tomasz Kamusella (University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK) Dr Krzysztof Jaskułowski (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland) EDITORIAL BOARD Balázs Apor (Dublin) Peter Burke (Cambridge) Monika Baár (Groningen) Andrea Graziosi (Naples) Akihiro Iwashita (Sapporo) Sławomir Łodziński (Warsaw) Alexander Markarov (Yerevan) Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov (Sofia) Alexander Maxwell (Wellington) Anastasia Mitrofanova (Moscow) Michael Moser (Vienna) Frank Lorenz Müller (St Andrews) Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (Pretoria) Balázs Trencsényi (Budapest) Sergei Zhuk (Muncie, Indiana) Susana Bayó Belenguer and Nicola Brady (editors) Pulling Together or Pulling Apart? 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More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org Nationalism’s kingdom is frankly of this world, and its attainment involves tribal selfishness and vainglory, a particularly ignorant and tyrannical intolerance [ ... ] nationalism brings not peace but the sword. — Carlton J. H. Hayes Identity is revealed to us only as something to be invented rather than discovered; as a target of an effort, ‘an objective’; as something one still needs to build from scratch or to choose from alternative offers and then to struggle for and then to protect through yet more struggle. — Zigmunt Bauman The disappearance of nations would have impoverished us no less than if all men had become alike, with one personality and one face. Nations are the wealth of mankind, its collective personalities; the very least of them wears its own special colours and bears within itself a special facet of divine intention. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Contents List of Tables ix Preface xi Susana Bayó Belenguer and Nicola Brady Introduction 1 Leyre Arrieta Alberdi The Basque Country within Spain and Europe: Basque Nationalist Party Proposals during the Spanish Transition to Democracy (1975–1980) 29 Nationalism and Identity: An Interview with Professor Xosé M. Núñez Seixas 55 Emmanuel Dalle Mulle Enlargement from Within? Secession and EU Membership 61 Gorka Etxebarria Dueñas Flagging the Nation in the Basque Country: The Flag War 91 Katerina Garcia Al tyempo del kuechko dulse : History, Language and Identity in Enrique Saporta y Beja’s Account of Jewish Life in Salonika 119 Richard Gow Patria and Citizenship: Miguel Primo de Rivera, Caciques and Military Delegados , 1923–1924 147 viii Contents Mark Friis Hau Becoming Catalan: Narrative Cultivation of Self among Catalan Nationalists 177 Carles Jovaní Gil Russian Geopolitical Thinking and the Ukrainian Crisis: Neo- Imperialist Aspirations or Merely a Survival Strategy? 203 Daniel Purcell Contested Unionism along the Irish Border at the Time of Partition 223 Juan Romero, Joaquín Martín Cubas, Margarita Soler Sánchez, José María Vidal Beltrán, and Carles Jovaní Gil Rebuilding Bridges: Nations and State in Present-Day Spain 253 Robert A. Saunders Separatism in the New Millennium: Looking Back to See Forward 283 Marçal Sintes Olivella, Josep-Lluís Micó-Sanz, and Francesc-Marc Álvaro Vidal The Pro-Independence Movement in Catalonia: Impact on the International Agenda and Media Pluralism 303 Sorina Soare Romania: The Challenges of Contested Identities 339 Iñigo Urrutia The Constitutional Crossroads in Spain 379 Eric Vanderheyden Ethical Nationalism: Social Citizenship in Multi-National States 399 Notes on Contributors 423 Index 431 Tables Table 8.1: Signatories of the Ulster Covenant and Women’s Declaration as a percentage of the adult non-Catholic population in 1911 census. Source: Fitzpatrick (2014: 243). 228 Table 8.2: Membership of the UVF and Ulster Clubs as a percentage of estimated adult non-Catholic population. Source: Fitzpatrick (2014: 244). 229 Table 8.3: Arms held by the UVF in each county. Source: Mac Giolla Choille (1966: 34). 230 Table 8.4: First World War enlistments per 1,000 non- agricultural males and percentage of non- agricultural males listed as non-Catholic in the 1911 census. Source: Unpublished figures pro- vided by David Fitzpatrick. 231 Table 11.1: Number of journal pieces 333 Table 11.2: Number of front-page or table-of-contents pieces 333 Table 11.3: Most common genres in printed press (%) 333 Table 11.4: Most common genres in broadcast media (%) 333 Table 11.5: Most common genres in online media (%) 334 Table 11.6: Opinion articles typology (%) 334 Table 11.7: Main subjects in printed press headlines (%) 334 Table 11.8: Main subjects in broadcasting media (%) 334 Table 11.9: Main subjects in online media (%) 335 Table 11.10: Typology of headlines (%) 335 Table 11.11: Typology of international headlines (%) 335 x Tables Table 11.12: Ideology of print media contributors (%) 335 Table 11.13: Ideology of online media contributors (%) 336 Table 11.14: Ideology of radio talk-show guests (%) 336 Table 11.15: Ideology of television talk-show guests (%) 336 Preface The editors, Susana Bayó Belenguer and Nicola Brady, have put to- gether a penetrating and stimulating collection of studies on the sub- ject of nationhood and identity on Europe’s multi-ethnic peripheries, with the main focus on the case of Spain. How Spain has addressed and is addressing the challenges of diversity are explored from a variety of disciplines, including politics, history, law, international relations, soci- ology, anthropology, media studies, and even literature. The scope and methodology of chapters vary even more widely, from a broad-ranging interview with Professor Xosé M. Núñez Seixas on the subject of na- tionalism to the analysis of an account of Jewish life in Salonika in the language of Judeo-Spanish. A theme that runs through the volume and which is implicit even in the chapters with a particular historical focus is that Spain’s pluri-national constitution remains a work in progress, as is evident in the analysis of both the Basque and Catalan cases. The larger emphasis on Catalan nationalism reflects changing contemporary priorities, with the waning of violence in the Basque Country. Still relevant to both cases is the issue of national identification: to what extent do people in these regions identify as both Basque and Spanish or as both Catalan and Spanish? Or is there a trend to identify exclusively with one or the other? This issue has been addressed in line with an innovative methodology that Luis Moreno developed as far back as 1986. He designed a self-identification scale that asked respond- ents what weight they gave to different national identities. For example, did they feel more Basque than Spanish or vice-versa? Or did they attach equal importance to both identities? The Moreno question continues to be asked in many different countries and to yield significant results that chart changes in sentiment over time. The rise of the politics of identity, as well as that of status, has meant that for many voters, these issues have become more salient than the bread and butter concerns that previously dominated their political preferences. xii Preface A corollary is that from a policy perspective, the accommodation of different identities looms large in the governance of European states. In states in which ethnic minorities within a country are associated with particular regions in which they constitute a majority of the population, the granting of regional autonomy is an obvious step. However, it is rarely the end of the matter, as arguments between the region and the centre over the exercise of their respective powers are likely to remain a source of friction, even under the most carefully designed constitutions. Further, dissatisfaction over the terms of autonomy and demands for their radical modification short of full independence may generate practically as much heat as the original push for autonomy and in the process increase sup- port for secession. As a number of chapters in this volume underline, this is precisely what has happened in Spain. The inclusion of other cases of multi-national and bi-national states gives further weight to the comparative approach to the analysis of these issues, with chapters on Russia and the Ukrainian crisis, Ulster Unionism during the partition of Ireland, sub-state nationalism in Scotland and Flanders, Romania’s relations with its kin-state of Moldova, and separ- atism as a phenomenon across Europe. One chapter compares the cases of Scotland and Catalonia, examining in forensic detail their prospects of achieving independence within Europe. Hitherto, the European Union has been unwilling to accept the legitimacy of secession within any member state, but has been ready to accept as members, states that emerged as a result of the collapse of communism and the break-up of states in Eastern Europe, i.e. that involved secession outside of the European Union. Whether the European Union would be ready to accept Scotland as a member after Brexit remains a fascinating question, as does the attitude of the Spanish government to such a possibility. Even while broadly discouraging the flow of refugees from outside of Europe, the European Union has played a generally constructive role in the promotion of the accommodation of diversity within Europe. That is one reason why Brussels has been a target of populists of a nativist bent. But, as the editors point out, the European project has by no means elim- inated ethnic fault lines, nor should populism and the reaction against Preface xiii immigration and multi-culturalism simply be seen as manifestations of na- tionalism, even majoritarian nationalism. The multiple angles from which these issues are addressed in this volume provide a valuable addition to our understanding of the processes of both integration and disintegration. Adrian Guelke Susana Bayó Belenguer and Nicola Brady Introduction Our present world is simultaneously moving towards the opposing dystopias of hyper centralisation and endless fragmentation. — Francis Fukuyama (2018) This publication has its origins in a multi-disciplinary conference of the same name hosted by the Department of Hispanic Studies in Trinity College, Dublin University, which, at a time when many Western dem- ocracies are being pulled apart by identity politics, brought together academics from around the world to explore themes of nationhood and belonging. In addressing multiple issues within identity formation, this volume assembles comparative and single-area case studies from dif- ferent academic disciplines which enable an holistic view of the evo- lution of identity-based conflict in Europe, and situate contemporary challenges in their historical context. It is appropriate therefore to set the scene by outlining the conceptual and contextual notions that underlie its themes, looking at what is under- stood by terms like ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ in the search for socio-political identity. And as our setting is Europe, it also seems apt to consider briefly the problems of an embattled EU at a time when Brexit is spearheading a general rising of dissent among its members. The Resilience of Nationalism as a Sociopolitical Force Experts recognize that, in divisive power, nationalism in the present western world has come to occupy the place once held by faiths, both prompting 2 Susana Bayó Belenguer and Nicola Brady a visceral adherence and defying rational conceptualizations. As Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr noted: ‘Nationalism remains [ ... ] the most vital polit- ical emotion in the world – far more vital than social ideologies such as communism or fascism or even democracy’ (1998: 53). Years earlier, in the aftermath of the First World War, Carlton Hayes had made much the same point, asking ‘why apostles of nationalism are characterised by a missionary zeal that is fiery and why its multitudinous disciples are possessed of a love that is consuming’ and linking the question to the assertion that ‘it is the latest and nearest approach to a world-religion’ (1926: 6). Nationalisms and their associated phenomena have continued to defy precise definition because they possess perhaps too many dimensions, too many facets, too many subjectivities to pin down.1 But, although whatever we may measure and quantify of the brain contributes only marginally to an understanding of what our thoughts are ‘made of ’, we continue to observe that which is as yet definitionally out of reach. In much the same way we may note that common to all our understandings of identity, of nationalism and of nation are (equally indefinable) emotions, beliefs and desires that con- tinue to confound debate. Spain’s internal divides provide a clear example, as perfectly sound arguments from one region are refuted by perfectly valid arguments from another, while all concerned are aware that debate is futile without a common understanding of what is meant by ‘nation’. Definitions are elusive also because, as Ernest Renan (1882) long ago realized, nationalism and nation are often compounds of the worst and best aspirations of communities, who call upon an ‘imagined’ past in support of demands for a future that will cater for present ambitions of ‘national’ identity. It is clear that to belong (however understood) and specifically, for the purposes of our present concern, to belong to a place, to a definable space, remains among the most powerful needs of human beings, and thus nationalism has the potential to arouse in us what Schlesinger identifies as ‘[t]he hostility of one tribe for another’ (1998: 12). This oldest of tribal instincts, still engendering among even the most advanced societies a drive to exclude from belonging, and the urge to cast out whatever is perceived as not belonging, is implicit in what Alain Touraine maintained: ‘Society 1 Among the perspectives from which they may be viewed, in no particular order, are: ethnic, geographic, religious, linguistic, historical, socio-biological, instrumen- talist, modernist and postmodernist. Introduction 3 is not merely a system of norms or a system of domination: it is a system of social relations, of debates and conflicts, of political initiatives and claims, of ideologies and alienation’ (1977: 30). Identity, that inherent heart of belonging, whatever its subjective and objective components, is realized as a social phenomenon, with the person finding expression only in terms of a society, and society having meaning only in terms of the person. Thus the ability of nationalism to (re)surface and adapt to the times depends substantially on its offering a perennially utopian vision of one’s roots, of one’s tribal identity within a recognizable community of kindred people. In the words of Anthony D. Smith: ‘Just as “the nation” is felt and willed and acted out, as well as imagined, so do many of the members of today’s nations feel that their own interests, needs and welfare are bound up with the welfare and destiny of “their” nation’ (2009: 14).2 But understandings of precisely what is meant by their nation may be as many and as varied as the members, and – just as significantly – the non-members, of it. In 1913 Joseph Stalin defined the nation along the lines of a community of language, territory, economic life and psychological make-up.3 Not too differently, but from a non-Marxist perspective, Ernest Gellner (1983), asserting that without nationalism there would not exist 2 As well as Smith (1971), for other earlier works on nationalism see, for example, Deutsch (1953); Rustow (1967). Apart from the 1983 contributions of Gellner and also Anderson, the 1980s and 1990s saw a wealth of offerings, among them, again, Smith (1995). Publications in the twenty-first century proliferate, with Smith (2009) this time challenging modernist and post-modernist views of the birth of the nation and nationalism. There are innovative takes on nationalism by, for ex- ample, Malesevic (2013); Berger and Conrad (2015); Brubaker (2015); edited books by Jensen (2016), and by Tierney (2018); and relevant to nationalisms in Spain (the topic area of several contributors to the present volume), see García (2018) and the edited book by Sepúlveda Muñoz (2018). 3 While early Marxist thinkers naturally perceived a link between the rise of capit- alism and nationalism, maintaining that the latter would disappear as it was sup- planted by worldwide class consciousness, the same view, that capitalism is largely responsible for nationalism is still held by, for example, Craig Calhoun (1997); and Bernadette McAliskey, addressing a meeting in (London)Derry to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the rioting in Northern Ireland that became known as the ‘Battle of the Bogside’ claimed both that ‘the capitalist classes of Ireland [ ... ] extol the virtues of the European Union’ and that ‘a focus on nationalism will “sooner or later” take Ireland towards fascism’ (McClements 2019). 4 Susana Bayó Belenguer and Nicola Brady the nation, gave two down-to-earth exemplifications of what constitutes a nation: Two men are of the same nation if and only if they share the same culture, where culture in turn means a system of ideas and signs and associations and ways of be- having and communicating. [ ... ] A mere category of persons (say, occupants of a given territory, or speakers of a given language, for example) becomes a nation if and when the members of the category firmly recognize certain mutual rights and duties to each other in virtue of their shared membership of it. It is their recognition of each other as fellows of this kind which turns them into a nation, and not the other shared attributes, whatever they might be, which separate that category from non-members. (Gellner 1983: 6, 7)4 But whereas in the past a shared culture and ethnicity (however indefin- able or smudged by history) over a sufficient period of time might have made it relatively easy to identify, and to identify with, one’s fellow na- tionals, Europe is increasingly experiencing an era not unlike that of the later Roman Empire in the West (itself long hybrid), when movements of people, many of them motivated by threats from other groupings, obliged overwhelming hegemonic shifts in a remix of cultures and communities that would take centuries to resolve into what we today understand as ‘Europe’. Similarly, today from a different direction, a new wave of migra- tion is beginning to force a reconsideration of what constitutes a national identity, and to oblige a recognition of challenges to the traditional state (see, for example, Guibernau and Rex, 2010, ‘Introduction’). And to muddy even further the already murky waters, Benedict Anderson, in taking a conceptual approach, suggested that the nation is an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign [ ... ] The nation is imagined as limited because even the largest of them [ ... ] has finite, if elastic, boundaries, beyond which lie other nations [ ... ] It is im- agined as sovereign because the concept was born in an age in which Enlightenment and Revolution were destroying the legitimacy of the divinely ordained, hierarchical dynastic realm [ ... ] Finally, it is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always 4 For a discussion of Gellner’s thought see Breuilly (2006).