Chapter 14 The Basque Country: With or Without the Spanish Constitution, Like or Unlike the Kosovo Precedent?

This article is a follow-up to an article published in the American Behavioral Scientist in 2017, titled “Shaping public opinion for confrontation: Catalan independence claims as represented in Spanish, Catalan, Valencian, and Basque Editorials.” At that time, our study was based on opinions expressed in mainstream newspaper editorials during two significant events in Catalonia’s recent history: the demonstration against the Spanish Constitutional Court ruling on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of July 10, 2010, and the mass pro-independence demonstration held on September 11, 2012. The research sought to compare the press reports published in Catalonia, Valencia, and the Basque Country with those from the rest of Spain (primarily Madrid). This study applies the same methodology to analyze editorial pieces published during the campaign prior to the Catalan parliamentary elections on December 21, 2017. This date was historically significant for Catalonia because for the first time since the restoration of democracy following the Franco regime, the Spanish state had intervened in Catalonia’s self-rule by using Article 155 of the Spanish constitution to call snap elections. At the time, the lead candidates for the pro-independence parties were Oriol Junqueras (Republican Left of Catalonia) and Carles Puigdemont (Together for Catalonia), the former in prison and the latter abroad (or in “exile,” according to secessionists). In light of the opposing opinions and perspectives, we believe it is worth analyzing and comparing mainstream editorials from Catalonia (Barcelona) and Spain (Madrid) once again, to ascertain the dominant narratives used in both to explain the Catalan and Spanish position and frame of reference. We have extended the scope to include mainstream online as well as printed media with a view to achieving a better understanding and providing a wider overview of the public agenda and debate at that time.

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“Desde el principio”: la quiebra jurisprudencial del autogobierno constitucional = ‘From the beginning’: the jurisprudential breakdown of constitutional self-government

EUNOMÍA Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad ◽

10.20318/eunomia.2019.4994 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 116

Author(s):

Bartolomé Clavero Salvador

Keyword(s):

Basque Country ◽

Constitutional Court ◽

Second Republic ◽

Spanish Constitution ◽

Palabras Clave ◽

Constitutional Jurisprudence ◽

Pais Vasco

Resumen: La Constitución Española diseñó en 1978 un régimen de autogobierno mediante Estatutos pactados para el acomodo de los territorios más diferenciados. Los reconoció como nacionalidades dotadas de derechos históricos con título así precedente a la propia Constitución en el tiempo y así, virtualmente, en el derecho. Incluso se revalidaron constitucionalmente los referenda de iniciativa para acceso a la autonomía que se habían efectuado bajo la Constitución anterior, la de la Segunda República. De tal modo se constituyeron en 1979 el País Vasco y Cataluña. Fue un proceso que comenzó a torcerse pronto. El Tribunal Constitucional, apenas establecido, comenzó en 1981 una labor concienzuda de zapa de ese régimen de autogobierno. He aquí un caso de verdadera jurisprudencia o, por lo que resultará, jurisimprudencia preventiva. De esto se preocupa este trabajo. Palabras clave: Constitución Española, jurisprudencia constitucional, derechos históricos, pactos estatuyentes, bloque de constitucionalidad, conflicto catalán. Abstract: In 1978, the Spanish Constitution designed a system of self-government by means of negotiated Statutes for the accommodation of the most differentiated territories. It recognized them as nationalities endowed with historical rights and therefore with a title preceding the Constitution itself in time and also, virtually, at law. Even the referenda of initiative for access to autonomy that had been carried out under the previous Constitution, that one of the Second Republic, were constitutionally revalidated. In this way, the Basque Country and Catalonia were constituted in 1979. It was a process that soon began to be distorted. The Constitutional Court, barely established, began in 1981 a meticulous work of sabotage of such a framework of self-government. Here is a case of truly preventive jurisprudence or, as it would turn out, juris-imprudence. That is what this paper is concerned about. Keywords: Spanish Constitution, constitutional jurisprudence, historical rights, self-government covenants, bloc de constitutionnalité, Catalan conflict.

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The Galician Electoral Model

Revista Gestão & Políticas Públicas ◽

10.11606/issn.2237-1095.v3i2p408-432 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 408-432

Author(s):

Álvaro Xosé Lopez-Mira

Keyword(s):

19Th Century ◽

Basque Country ◽

Early 19Th Century ◽

Spanish Constitution ◽

Starting Point

Along with Catalonia and the Basque Country, Galicia is one of the "historic nationalities" acknowledged by the Spanish Constitution of 1978; features such as an own language, an own culture and their political claim for differentiation describe its particular identity and are, as well, the starting point for the mentioned constitutional consideration. The centre-periphery conflicts have been constant throughout the history and became even worse both after the establishment of constitutionalism in the early 19th century and due to the exigency of Spanish nationalism during General Franco's dictatorship.

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Spain’s Multinational Constitution: a Lost Opportunity?

Constitutional Forum / Forum constitutionnel ◽

10.21991/c9t08f ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 17 (1, 2 & 3) ◽

pp. 2008

Author(s):

Antoni Abad i Ninet ◽

Adrià Rodés Mateu

Keyword(s):

Basque Country ◽

The State ◽

National Identities ◽

Constitutional Development ◽

Political Autonomy ◽

Spanish Constitution ◽

Lost Opportunity

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 provid- ed an opportunity for minority nationalities within Spain to achieve a degree of political au- tonomy not shared by others within the state. During the constituent process, the non-Span- ish speaking national communities of Catalonia and the Basque Country were the only political entities demanding political autonomy to ac- commodate their national identities in the new Constitution. Today, after thirty years of demo- cratic and constitutional development, we can see that the possibilities offered by the Spanish Constitution to recognize and accommodate the multinational character of the Spanish state have been lost. This article examines causes of this failure to take advantage of the possibilities provided by the Spanish Constitution to pro- vide for asymmetrical political autonomy for minority nationalities.

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Value Dominants of Basque Mentality in the Contemporary Media in Spain

Вопросы теории и практики журналистики ◽

10.17150/2308-6203.2019.8(4).800-815 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 800-815

Author(s):

Olga Chesnokova ◽

Liana Dzhishkariani

Keyword(s):

Spanish Text ◽

Political Parties ◽

Basque Country ◽

Economic Changes ◽

Autonomous Communities ◽

Spanish Constitution ◽

Official Languages ◽

The Media ◽

Media Texts ◽

Contemporary Reality

The article discusses and interprets the Basque mentality values and their evidence in the contemporary political discourse and media. An important task of communication science and medialinguistics is the study of pragma-linguistic properties of media texts and their impact on the audience. The contemporary Spanish media feature an impressive range of sources representing and interpreting the multicultural and multi-ethnic situation in Spain, as well as ongoing socio-political and socio-economic changes. Together with the Spanish language being the official state language, the Catalan, the Galician and the Basque have been established co-official languages by the Spanish Constitution. Basque Autonomous Community, or the Basque Country, is one of the most prosperous and steadily developing Autonomous Communities of Spain, which affects the socio-political situation in the region and the discourse of political parties. A vast majority of Basque people are bilingual. The hypothesis of this study states that the contemporary reality of the Basque Country finds its reflection in value dominants of the discourse of political parties of the Basque Country. This discourse is objectified by the Mass Media rhetoric, studying which the authors determine and discuss the value dominants of Basque linguistic culture, their linguo-pragmatic features and their use in the media language, as well as their lexical, semantic, morphological and syntactic features. All this builds up the topicality of the research into pragma-linguistic parameters of media texts and mechanisms of their impact on the audience. The authors infer that the media rhetoric includes onomastic dominants (naming units of Spanish Basque Country and French Basque Country and their paraphrases, of Spain, Basque people, and the Basque language), and keywords of the Basque mentality introduced into a Spanish text in Basque. Moreover, being integral components of the discourse of political parties in the Basque Country, these linguistic means acquire and realize their cultural and symbolic potential, and reflect the mentality, values, and traditions of Basques in the modern Basque and Spanish media.

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Language Revitalisation in Gaelic Scotland

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474443111.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Stuart Dunmore

Keyword(s):

Language Use ◽

Basque Country ◽

Future Generations ◽

Contemporary Society ◽

Policy Interventions ◽

School Based ◽

Immersion Education ◽

Medium Education ◽

Language Revitalisation ◽

First Time

Situated within the interrelated disciplines of applied sociolinguistics and the sociology of language, this book explores the language use and attitudinal perceptions of a sample of 130 adults who received Gaelic-medium education (GME) at primary school, during the first years of that system’s availability in Scotland. The school is viewed by policymakers as a crucial site for language revitalisation in such diverse contexts as Hawai’i, New Zealand and the Basque Country – as well as throughout the Celtic-speaking world. In Scotland, GME is seen as a key area of language development, regarded by policymakers as a strategic priority for revitalising Gaelic, and maintaining its use by future generations of speakers. Yet theorists have stressed that school-based policy interventions are inadequate for realising this objective in isolation, and that without sufficient support in the home and community, children are unlikely to develop strong identities or supportive ideologies in the language of their classroom instruction. For the first time, this book provides an in-depth assessment of language use, ideologies and attitudes among adults who received an immersion education in a minority language, and considers subsequent prospects for language revitalisation in contemporary society. Based on detailed analyses using mixed methods, the book offers empirically grounded suggestions for individuals and policymakers seeking to revitalise languages internationally.

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