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MEMBER STATES AND EU VALUES: THE CHALLENGE OF NATIONALISM
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Various Catalan leaders involved have since
qualified UDI as having been more rhetorical
than factual given their lack of means to make
it effective. It goes without saying that not a
single country anywhere in the world has sup-
ported or recognised Catalonia’s spurious decla-
ration of independence and that Spain’s part-
ners in Europe, which consider it to be an
advanced democracy that respects the rule of
law, have naturally been even less disposed to
do so. Leaders in every European capital includ-
ing Berlin, Paris and London, as well as commu-
nity leaders, presidents, the EU Parliament, the
European Council and Commission Presidents,
have affirmed their full support for the Spanish
government and called for the conflict to be re-
solved by political means within a legal frame-
work that respects the Spanish Constitution.
Independence forces long insinuated that
Catalonia would automatically become a full-
fledged member of the European Union upon
secession despite repeated reminders on the
part of the Commission – the body charged
with preserving the integrity of the Treaties –
that according to the Prodi doctrine “a newly
independent region would become, as a result
of its independence, a third country in relation
to the Union and all treaties would not apply to
its territories from the first day of its independ-
ence” and any new state seeking membership
would be required to submit its own application
for membership, which would not become ef-
fective until approved by all Member States, in-
cluding Spain.
While this groundswell of Catalan national-
ism, like many other intra-European conflicts,
may be rooted in historic disagreements, it is
also a reflection of a more general wave of pro-
sovereignty and identitarian thinking linked to a
desire to safeguard local prerogatives and cul-
ture in an increasingly globalised world. It is also
a consequence of an economic crisis and pro-
tracted recession that has tempted certain re-
gions to devise strategies – notable for their lack
of solidarity with others – for moving ahead to-
wards recovery as quickly as possible on their
own. A few irresponsible, power-hungry politi-
cal leaders are all it takes to get the ball rolling
in the wrong direction.
It is interesting to note that although the
Catalan independence movement includes left-
wing parties such as Esquerra Republicana
de
Catalunya, the scant support the Catalan seces-
sion process has received from elsewhere has
come almost entirely from right-wing parties
and leaders such as Nigel Farage (former head
of the UK Independence Party and front-line
Brexit advocate), Geert Wilders (founder and
leader of the Islamophobic Party of Freedom in
the Netherlands), Heinz-Christian Strache
(the
leader of the extreme right-wing Freedom Party
of Austria), Matteo Salvini (leader of the popu-
list and xenophobic League in Italy) and Jens
Eckleben (a founding member of the anti-Euro-
pean party Alternative for Germany). The sepa-
ratist movement’s friends in Belgium are limited
to the pro-independence, nationalist New
Flemish Alliance party, which harbours open
racists such as Theo Francken, and the uncondi-
tional support of the extreme right-wing Flemish
Interest party. The individuals and groups back-
ing Catalan secession are essentially the same
individuals and groups that supported Brexit
and a few autocratic governments such as those
in Warsaw and Budapest. Those bucking the
tide towards further European integration, the
suppression of borders and the convergence of
values and interests of similar societies have
much in common. In other words, support for
exclusionary, disunifying identitarian national-
isms, whether at the national or regional level, is
coming from the same quarters. The xenophobic