Cries of a 'coup d'etat' have echoed from both sides of the Catalan independence debate. But a government overthrow takes the crisis a bit too far in a country that still remembers 200 gunmen storming parliament.
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Carles Puigdemont will not appear in the Spanish Senate on Thursday as the country's lawmakers prepare to implement Article 155, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Some expected the Catalan president to respond to what Gabriel Rufian of the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia party called "an institutional coup d'etat" carried out by Spain's major political parties to deny Catalan independence. Similar accusations have also come from Madrid with Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis saying "a coup d'etat is what Mr. Puigdemont and his government have done."
Such language, said Sebastian Balfour, is being used for ideological purposes in a country that has a historical benchmark for a coup d'etat: the 1981 attempted military takeover of the then-three-year-old democracy. Even if the present crisis is as critical as the attempted government takeover 36 years ago, the contexts are very different, according to the emeritus professor of contemporary Spanish studies at the London School of Economics.
When gunmen stormed the Spanish parliament
When the lower house of Spain's parliament began a roll-call vote for a new prime minister on February 23, 1981, 200 gun-wielding members of the Civil Guard military police burst into the chamber. The Franco loyalists fired shots into the air and took the deputies hostage. They hoped to install a military government "all for Spain," as coup leader Antonio Tejero said (pictured above). After backstage phone calls from then-King Juan Carlos I to advisers and military leaders, he made a nationally televised broadcast at 1:15 a.m., calling for the defense of Spain's constitution through all legal measures necessary. The coup collapsed, and its leaders were arrested that day.
For many, the coup's failure showed that Spain had firmly transitioned away from Franco's authoritarian system as the putsch had been "an attempted coup at democracy as a whole," Balfour said.
A constitutional challenge
Thirty-six years later, the current independence movement seeks to extend democracy, Balfour said. It is a "challenge to the constitutional framework" that has been in place in Spain since the post-Franco transition. According to Balfour, today's crisis stems from the fixed nature of the Spanish constitution.
"It can't reflect changing identities and allegiances," he said, pointing out that many of Spain's current regional identities emerged in the decades following 1978 thanks to the constitution's enshrinement of "café para todos" or "coffee for all," which granted varying degrees of autonomy to all of Spain's regions.
Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities
With a strong identity of its own, Catalonia is now at the center of a tug-of-war between the central government and autonomous authorities. To differing degrees, various parts of Spain have strong national self-images.
Image: Reuters/J. Nazca
A Roman province
The Romans had several provinces with Hispania in their names on the Iberian Peninsula. Modern Spain also encompasses such wide cultural diversity that the Spanish themselves speak of Las Espanas (The Spains). The country in its present form was never united under a single ruler until after the 1702-14 War of the Spanish Succession.
Image: picture-alliance/Prisma Archivo
A nation of regions
Spanish nationalism is strong in many regions, with former kingdoms such as Aragon largely content to be recognized as part of the Spanish nation-state. Asturias has its own language, but takes pride in its role as the birthplace of the Reconquista, or the taking back of Iberia from the Moors. Spanish nationalism was evident in recent years in Madrid in response to Catalonia's referendum.
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Bloodied fingers
Catalonia has long battled for independence. Its flag, the Senyera, is very similar to that of Aragon, to which it once belonged. The design is fabled to represent four bloodied fingers of Count Wilfred the Hairy being passed over a gold shield. Catalans were fairly happy with their situation until a court struck down the region's statute of autonomy in 2006 and support for independence grew.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/M. Oesterle
No great appetite
Valencianismo, or Valencian nationalism, sprang out of the Renaixenca, an early-19th-century rebirth of the Catalan language, of which Valencian is just one variant. However, nationalist sentiment is not widespread in the region, which is home to Spain's Tomatina tomato-throwing festival. The Valencian Nationalist Bloc usually gets about 4 percent of the vote for the autonomous parliament.
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Other Catalan territories
The Balearic Islands — Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Formentera — all speak variants of Catalan. Though there is a greater nationalist feeling on the islands than in Valencia, it is still more subdued than in Catalonia. Meanwhile, La Franja, a strip of Catalan-speaking land in Aragon, was split by the independence referendum, though most residents do not advocate self-determination for themselves.
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The Basque Country
Because of terror attacks by the ETA militant group, Basque separatists used to make the headlines far more often than Catalonia's independence movement. Separatists consider the Basque Country in France and Spain and the region of Navarre to be one nation. About a third of people want full independence, but most want more autonomy. A referendum proposed in 2008 was ruled illegal.
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The Galician cause
Although it was the birthplace of the centralist dictator Francisco Franco, Galicia has the strongest tradition of separatism after Catalonia and the Basque Country. Even Spain's mainstream national parties display a streak of Galicianism in the region. Perhaps as a result, starkly nationalist parties receive a lower share of the regional vote.
The Arabic name al-Andalus originally refers to the areas of the Iberian Peninsula that were under Moorish rule for 760 years. As Christians reconquered territories, the area known as Andalusia shrank southwards. Most Andalusians voted for autonomy after Franco died in 1975, but there is little appetite for full independence.
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In Catalonia, the drive for independence intensified when the region's redefined Statue of Autonomy was struck down by a national court in 2010. Part of the problem was the preamble's use of the word "nation" to describe Catalonia.
"Autonomy is one thing," Balfour said. "It is another thing when an autonomy like Catalonia is claiming to be more than just nationality."
Fear of autonomy?
Balfour said the wording has been a historically "uncomfortable formulation for the right." One often-speculated reason for the 1981 coup was that the hardline right-wing military officers feared the establishment of autonomous regions would cause the dissolution of the Spanish state. Catalonia received its first post-Franco statue of autonomy two years before the coup.
Conservative unease over the state of national unity plays out today within Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party (PP), which occupies a swath of the political right and has a strong sense of Spain's indivisibility, Balfour said. The fact that Spain's other major party, the Socialists, backs Rajoy one hundred percent is more unexpected, as it had previously advocated for reforms to the constitution to make Spain into a federal state.
The king to the rescue?
Unlike in 1981, no one should expect King Felipe VI to de-escalate the crisis, Balfour said. The king has unequivocally criticized Catalan leaders for their independence drive in all of his speeches and given his approval to the implementation of Article 155.
"[Felipe] is wedded to the constitution as it is now, and under it no right of self-determination is possible," Balfour said.
Whereas Juan Carlos received praise for his poised address to the Spanish nation in 1981, Felipe was criticized for failing in his televised October 3 speech to mention the violence that Civil Guard members used against Catalans during the contested October 1 independence referendum. Puigdemont said such violence had not been seen since Franco's rule, when the dictator used the force to carry out violent political repression across all of Spain, including in Catalonia, where citizens faced cultural and linguistic repression as well.
The Civil Guard's role in the 1981 coup also didn't help the corps shake off its Francoist legacy at Spain's democratic advent. But Balfour said the narrative used by Catalan secessionists defining the Civil Guard's actions as an "extension" of Francoism is not legitimate as the Civil Guard deployment was an example of "Madrid using legality and law and order rather than politics" to tackle the Catalan crisis.
It all comes down to the constitution
"The problem is the constitution itself and its interpretation in terms of policy by the Spanish government," Balfour said, adding that any short-term de-escalation would require Catalan dropping its independence bid, which he said was unlikely.
A long-term settlement, however, is another matter. Balfour said he thinks, some 36 years after Spain survived an attempted military coup, it is time to revisit the nation's constitutional settlement.
"Societies change. Constitutions can't forever mirror the ideological, political and cultural balance within society," he said. An amendment to the 1978 constitution granting the right to self-determination — approved by all Spaniards — may resolve the issue. Currently, many in Spain support the right to vote on independence but do not advocate independence itself. What is necessary, Balfour said, is that such questions enter public discourse, which "has been narrowed down to a rebellion on one side and a repression on the other."
Catalonia's independence movement — a brief history
The desire of many Catalans to gain independence from Spain has a long history. The region has experienced varying levels of autonomy and repression over the centuries.
Image: picture-alliance/Prisma Archivo
Rich ancient heritage
Catalonia has been settled by the Phoenicians, the Etruscans and the Greeks, who were mainly in the coastal areas of Rosas and Empuries (above). Then came the Romans, who built more settlements and infrastructure. Catalonia remained a part of the Roman Empire until it was conquered by the Visigoths in the fifth century.
Image: Caos30
Counties and independence
Catalonia was conquered by Arabs in 711 AD. The Frankish king Charlemagne stopped their advance at Tours on the Loire River and, by 759, the north of Catalonia was once again Christian. In 1137, the counties that made up Catalonia entered an alliance with the Crown of Aragon.
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Autonomy and the war of succession
In the 13th century, the institutions of Catalan self-administration were created under the banner of the Generalitat de Catalunya. After the unification of the Crown of Aragon with that of Castile in 1476, Aragon was largely able to keep its autonomic institutions. However, the Catalan revolt — from 1640 to 1659 — saw parts of Catalonia ceded to present-day France.
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Remembrance of defeat
After the conquest of Barcelona on September 11, 1714, by the Bourbon King Phillip V, Catalan instuitutions were dissolved and self-administration came to an end. Every year, on September 11, Catalans commemorate the end of their right to autonomy.
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Federal ideas in wider republic
After the abdication of King Amadeo I of Spain, the first Spanish Republic was declared in February 1873. It lasted barely a year. The supporters of the Republic were split – one group supporting the idea of a centralized republic, the others wanting a federal system. Pictured here is Francisco Pi i Maragall, a supporter of federalism and one of five presidents of the short-lived republic.
Image: picture-alliance/Prisma Archivo
Failed attempt
Catalonia sought to establish a new state within the Spanish republic, but this only served to exacerbate the differences between republicans, ultimately dividing and weakening them. In 1874, the monarchy and the House of Bourbon (led by King Alfonso XII, pictured here) took the helm.
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Catalan Republic
Between 1923 — with the support of the monarchy, the army and the church — General Primo de Rivera declared a dictatorship. Catalonia became a center of opposition and resistance. After the end of the dictatorship, the politician Francesc Macia (pictured here) successfully pressed for important rights of autonomy for Catalonia.
The end of freedom
In the Second Spanish Republic, Catalan lawmakers worked on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. This was approved by the Spanish parliament in 1932. Francesc Macia was elected president of the Generalitat of Catalonia by the Catalan parliament. However, the victory of Franco at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) put an end to all that.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Loss of liberties
The Franco regime ruled with an iron rod. Political parties were banned and the Catalan language and culture were surpressed.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo
New autonomy by statute
After the first parliamentary elections that followed the end of the Franco dictatorship, the Generalitat of Catalonia was provisionally restored. Under the democratic Spanish constitution of 1978, Catalonia was given a new Statute of Autonomy just a year later.
The new Statute of Autonomy recognized the autonomy of Catalonia and the importance of the Catalan language. In comparison to the 1932 statute, it was enhanced in the fields of culture and education but curtailed when it came to the realm of justice. Pictured here is Jordi Pujol, the long-time head of the government of Catalonia after the dictatorship.
Image: Jose Gayarre
Stronger self-awareness
A desire for independence has grown stronger in recent years. In 2006, Catalonia was given a new statute that broadened the Catalan government's powers. However, it lost these after a complaint by the conservative Popular Party to the Constitutional Court of Spain.
Image: Reuters/A.Gea
First referendum
A referendum on independence was already envisaged for November 9, 2014. The first question was "Do you want Catalonia to become a state?" In the case of an affirmative answer, the second question was posed: "Do you want this state to be independent?" However, the Constitutional Court suspended the vote.
Image: Reuters/G. Nacarino
Clash of the titans
Since January 2016, Carles Puigdemont has been president of the Catalan government. He proceeded with the separatist course of his predecessor Artur Mas and called the new referendum for October 1, 2017. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed this as unconstitutional.