The State of the European Union. The European Parliament faces its most important elections yet

SPAIN BEFORE A NEW EUROPEAN POLITICAL CYCLE 19 Nationalism and populism: the end of the Spanish exception in the EU? However, first 2017 and then and, particularly, 2018 have shown that Spain is not quite an oa- sis amid the political and social turbulence that the EU is going through. Spain is suffering a severe crisis caused by identity nationalism in Catalonia – one of its main autonomous communities -, which is de- termined to subvert the constitutional order, challenge the territorial integrity of the country and veer from European values and goals. Neither before nor after the illegal referen- dum of 1 October 2017, nor after the elections held in December that year has this exclusionary nationalism offered any respite, either on the part of the Generalitat of Catalonia – the au- tonomous government – or on that of the po- litical parties and civil society. In that respect, we could say at the time of writing that Spain is the community member in which the nationalist phenomenon has acquired most virulence if we compare its situation with other states, such as Belgium, France, Italy or the United Kingdom. Obviously, such a situation has forced Spain to make a special effort to explain the situation in Catalonia and to witness with a certain sense of impotence the consequences of the miscon- ceptions and of the gaps or insufficient enact- ment of community regulations. The examples of the incomprehensible ap- plication of the European arrest warrant by Belgian and German courts to pro-independ- ence politicians who are fugitives from Spanish justice should serve to prompt the EU to take the necessary steps to unify criminal law and complete the European arrest warrant to make it necessarily automatic in all cases. Meanwhile, the entry of the far right into the institutions – VOX in the Andalusian parlia- ment in the elections of 2 December 2018 – has revealed that that type of populism exists in Spain too and will have more or less institution- al representation. However, although we are already seeing that the far right is having an influence on the hardening of the political positions of the PP, it hard to imagine that it will succeed in altering the pro-European character of the Spanish cen- tre right, as happened in other European coun- tries. Not just because of convictions and iden- tity, but above all because without a shadow of a doubt the voters on that side of the spectrum stand firmly in the pro-European camp, as any poll will attest. VOX’s programme includes clearly Eurosceptic or Trump-like ideas, among which we might note the following: – “Promote in Brussels a new European treaty in line with what the countries of the Visegrad Group defend in terms of borders, national sovereignty and respect for the val- ues of European culture and which consider- ably increases Spain’s weight in the decision- making process, at least as much as what the Treaty of Nice did”. – “Reduction of European political spending, eliminating duplications and agencies that interfere in national sovereignty. Exclusivity of the state as far as international relations are concerned (Article 149 of the Constitution). Elimination of all external po- litical representation of regions or munici- palities”. – “Stress the bilateral nature of international relations, leaving supranational bodies if they are contrary to the interests of Spain. Reassessment of Spain’s contribution to said