Who’s a Spaniard These Days?

In this postmodern world, the question on the lips of many people in the West is simply this..."Who gets to rule and why?" This question has been raised for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most is the Great Economic Collapse of 2008. From this event many modern institutions lost all credibility not only in America but Europe as well. And once this legitimacy was gone, people started to look a lot closer at the world they were living in. And it was within this contemplative reflection that some very disturbing facts about Western democracy have been exposed. Here are a few of these very important facts. 1. The European Union does not really exist. It has no land. It has no citizens. It only has a flag. It is not a democratic institution. It is like the writer of this article says, it is a utopian dream still under construction. 2. Brexit, unlike the referendum in Catalonia is a legitimate democratic expression of political power. And when that power is exercised legally, the will of the people needs to be followed. But what has become evident is that there are people who will not like the result, and some of them feel they have a right to overturn the result. 3. Trump was democratically elected. Even though he is loathsome in so many ways, removing him outside of the democratic process will do more harm to American democracy than if he is allowed to serve out is term. All this reminds us that democracy and our politics is in real trouble. Neiter

I went to Spain in the early 1990s and I consider Spain to be a beautiful yet mysterious country populated by one of the most beautiful and decent people on earth. Firstly, all those commenters and the author who made fun that Spaniards eat lunch at 3pm (it is more like 2-230pm) fail to also say that Madrid is actually west of London and Merida, Extremadura (where the author was born) is almost at the same longitude as Dublin! Yet, their ‘clock’ (CET) is one hour ahead. They are having lunch at 1-130pm by the clock of the Sun by which our bodies are ruled by. Secondly, Franco’s rule was a brutal dictatorship ruled by Castille and driving Castilian language and values. Catalan, Euskara (Basque), Aranese and Galician were forcibly subdued. Furthermore, since Catalan was under republican control and was quasi-independent for a long period of time, the wrath of Franco and his supporters was brutal. Furthermore, post 2015 “security laws” are brutally applied to Catalonians. On the other hand, Catalonia is the “economic driver” of Spain with one of the highest GDP per capita (the other is … surprise … Basque). Catalonia is the recipient of internal migration from poorer regions like Extremadura. You cannot have the richest provinces in your country treated as second class citizens. Spain should sit together and write a common social contract. A nation is built on an enduring social contract. That is the only commonality that can bind them together,

Let me provide a different side of the story. The campaign of fear and violation of basic liberties has been extreme since mid September. Teachers, political satirists, comedians, and regular social media users critical of the government the police violence have been pulled before the courts on charges of inciting hatred. Neighborhood political organizing groups that meet in public plazas are being ID’d by police if we are more than 20 people. The effect has been chilling and it now feels like an act of civil disobedience to just tweet. In Catalonia, it feels that we are under attack by the central government. The vice president of Spain recently talked of “liquidating” independentists, the Prime Minister and King actively encouraged businesses to leave Catalonia, the central government closed almost all international offices of the Catalan government (responsible for promoting trade and investment in Catalonia), and the main opposition party wants to eliminate the linguistic immersion program which is the cornerstone of Catalan education. Saying that Catalans are acting outside the law negates all of this and implies that there is a viable solution within the current government structure. Contrary to what the author states, this is not an attempt to destabilize Europe, but an attempt to wake up the EU and see if it really stands for the basic human rights it was founded on. We are simply fighting for our right to exist, free from the imposition of Spanish nationalism.

• The truth is that in 1987 almost no one in Spain would talk loudly, no one would have lunch at 3 p.m., and no one took siestas anymore (except me, and I still do). Fake News! - partly. In 1987, no siesta, "comida". You couldn't find a store or office open between 1 and 5pm. If you needed to find anyone you went to a bar, tasca or restaurant. Everyone was there except maybe you, dormant, taking a siesta. I clearly remember bars, discos and dance halls opening at 1am all over Spain; restaurants no earlier than 9pm. During the Spanish Civil War, even the armies took a break from fighting between 1 and 3pm – see Peter Wyden's The Passionate War, the foremost narrative history of the event. That detail speaks to your bias. The sending in the Civil Guard, Franco's despised paramilitary force to prevent the free practice of democracy in Catalonia, to disrupt and impede the free election rights of a nation was the abomination of "Franquismo", the total suppression of freedom of choice behind constitutional legalisms is the "fake news". He could just as well have ignored the vote and declare it non-existent and non-binding – no use of force, no blood. But Rajoy is Franco's heir. The fight for Catalán independence from Spain goes back 300 years. The most significant conflict concerning the governing monarchy in Catalunya was the War of the Spanish Succession in 1700. The 'Fraud' was perpetrated by Rajoy and his Popular Party who defied Catalonia's long held autonomic rights.

Unbelievable. Will the response to any type of opposition now be, oh, Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine highlighted it, and therefore anyone repeating it is a gullible, useful idiot? It is strange how Javier Cercas circumnavigates the main issue, though he makes frequent allusions to it: Catalonia's wealth, the European Union, economic recovery, and "the furious ultimatums of capital". One of Catalonia's issue is that it has no control over spending. It is one of the wealthiest regions, and sends money to Madrid, where Madrid decides how it will be spent; as of late, austerity cuts have reduced programs that Catalonians use. This has made Catalans angry. This is also a theme across Europe, making many Europeans angry, feeding into populist backlashes. And this has nothing to do with Putin.

Speaking about fraud, would be enlightning to also point the despicable frauds done by th PP party in the last decade. That surely is serious stuff and a huge problem to Spain and Europe.

A part of me wants to say "Free Catalan," but another part of me knows that if, say, South Carolina tried to secede again, I'd say "The Union must be preserved."

"Despite its countless defects, a united Europe is, at least for a leftist Europeanist like me, the only reasonable utopia. That is what, ultimately, being Spanish means to me: a peculiar way of being European." The best.

your use of the word "disloyal" smacks of the nearly racist contempt with which portions of spain view Catalans and Catalunya. I wonder why you insist on spelling Catalunya as if you were British, and did not speak Catalan? The word disloyal is used over and over again (look on you tube) by Castillian nationalist to delegitimize Catalan aspirations. Disloyal to what? Spain? The idea of Spain. Given what Catalunya has suffered under Castillian rule the last 300 odd years, who can blame them for wanting independence. Catalunya is not Spain, its just about that simple..Why should they not have the choice whether to stay or leave, just as the Scots have had?

I resent this. If you want to understand why Catalonians want independence, ask a real Catalan of Catalan parents and grand parents like me, who are at least half the people living there, and exactly know why. They can point to history, 300 hundred years of being bludgeoned and murdered by Castillians is quite enough. Now they fleece us instead, and if we don't like it they send riot police. It stops now. This reporter should be ashamed of himself trying to explain Catalonia to the New York Times, from Madrid'd point of view. Illegal, he says? So it was the Tea Party of Boston, remember? Yet it was a GOOD THING. We have to respect the law, but ultimately the law is at our service, not the other way around. And when those under the law believe it unjust, the law must give. We would still be British... I left Barcelona in 1987 at 27 tired of waiting for Franco to die, and it's the best thing I did. Spain was great once, but hasn't for a long while. It's democracy con 'mala leche.' A pity really because it's a great place. Madrid needs us more than we need them. Because Catalonia was a land of opportunity many people from other regions moved there, many who vote are not really Catalans, they just live there with few ties. Others have no Catalan parents or only one, and so for these and other reasons their loyalty and support for Catalonian culture and life is either missing or weak.

"A few appalling images of the Spanish federal police charging Catalans". You are surely master of the understatement. There were a thousand people injured. These were not a bunch of militants, students, drop outs, or greenies, they were mums and dads, young and old behaving peacefully. I find this dogmatic argument, "it's illegal, it's not in the constitution", a bit like the religious one. Rajoy has used the age-old technique of wedge politics and, sadly, the Spanish people have been induced by hatred. During the crisis, he passed legislation to help Catalan companies to move out of Catalonia. Now, during the election campaign he is saying that they will offer money for them to move back. Shows how sincere he is.

I have a couple of issues with this article, which seems to ignore much of the context in which the Catalan separatist movement is gestating. First the author extols the quality of Spain's democracy, while ignoring its erosion under Rajoy's party popular. Just one piece of evidence for such erosion was the passage of the seriously anti democratic gag laws, restricting the rights of the people to openly disagree with their government. Reported on here by the NYT. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/opinion/spains-ominous-gag-law.html Second, the use of force to suppress the independence vote provided stunningly bad optics, with the obvious Francist analogies served up to the media on a silver platter. This was a cynical calculation by the PP in order to drive a wedge between PSOE and Podemos, without zero respect for the people of Catalunya. Finally the author seems to acknowledge that the is popular Catalan support for the sepeartists, which we already know as they had a majority in the Catalan parliament because they were democratically elected. However the author seems to believe they all have been brainwashed by the Catalan media, "It’s difficult to imagine that enough Catalans will stop believing the tons of lies that were fabricated with public funds and spread by the pro-independence cause." A bit unfair no?

Mr. Cercas, conveniently fails to explain the context under which the current quest for Catalonian independence originated, grew and brought us to the current juncture, as though it happenened and out of the blue. Yes, until 2006 Catalonia enjoyed a certain measure of self-government, Catalan could be freely spoken and things were realtively calm. In 2006 the Catalan "Estatut" came up for review and it was ratified by both the Catalant and the Spanish Parliamen. (Cortes) Almost immediatly the Partido Popular of Mariano Rajoy (PP) mounted a vicious campaign against Catalonia, organized boycots and petitions seeking to struck down the democratically approved Estatut. This culminated in 2010 with the Constitutional Court of Spain striking down and altering mportant articles of Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy. The "Statutes" of Spain's other 16 autonomous regions were left to stand untouched. Efforts to address our grievances with the Madrid government fell into deaf ears, peaceful demonstrations by 1.5 million Catalans in Barcelona every 9/11 were ignored and mocked, request for a legal referendum were repeatedly denied while the Madrid government perpetrated new assaults on the Catalan economy, culture and right to self-determination. Responsibility for the current situation and escalation of conflicts must rest primarily on Mr. Rajoy and his corrupt PP's intransigence and authoritarianism so reminiscent of the Franco era and Spanish imperial past.

Mr. Cercas fails to mention the 'claw-back' of Catalan autonomy that occurred under the conservative Spanish government. If they have not imposed centralized, Madrid-based dictatorship cum theocracy as under Franco, they have certainly restricted and demeaned Catalan independence and culture. I forget which EU poobah said that Europe could not fissure into 92 (or some such number) countries. Why not? The key identifier of a people is their language. Catalan is older than Spanish or French and the identifier of a culture strikingly different from that of Castilian Spain. Of course Catalan culture has been diluted by the mentioned influx of poorer Southern Spaniards (completely legal under both Spanish and now European law). However do native Catalans have no rights to protest this influx and/or retain as much as possible of their own culture? How would Mr. Cercas feel about a vote on Catalan independence that was limited to people of Catalan origin? Probably about the same way citizens of the U.S. might feel about a vote on the future of the U.S. that was limited to Native Americans. Dan Kravitz

“All collective identity is a fiction.” Thank you very much! As a Canadian (and therefore, on the basis of my father’s genealogical research, of Irish, Scottish, German, Native, and Acadian French descent), I have been searching for this phrase for a very long time!

While I udnerstand that this is just an opinion pice, I am somewhat taken aback by the lack of nuanced analysis from the author. This piece could just have been written by Mariano Rajoy itself, since it just echoes the messge from the central government without any distillation. To be more precise: 1) Fake news? To date there is no compelling evidence that puts Putin behind the independence movement. 2) The piece avoids any mention as to the conditions that led to the run-away movement towards independence initiated in 2012 by Artur Mas, including the crisis and the stirring up of anticatalan sentiment by the party of Rajoy during the 2000s, as part of a strategy to regain the government. I firmly oppose independence but I wonder if simplistic analysis like this one do more harm than good

I don't get it. Spain was a forced amalgamation of 5 Iberian regions. Two of them, Catalonia and the Basque region have been trying to assert their own identities for a while. Why is this wrong? There is not longer (practically speaking) a Spanish Kingdom. Do we need to pretend? And it's not just a Spanish issue. Next door in France, Bretaigne (Breizh) and Gascogne have developed strong, separate identities. Remember that France, like Spain, was a forced union of older duchies, each with its own language and culture. Union was not a natural thing. People who live there remember what happened and have now decided to act. Why do you have a problem with that? One of the posters alludes to Bavaria as a content part of Germany. Have you actually been there and talked to people? It's the same aspirations as further west. And then there's Bohemia and Moravia...

I'm in NH, USA. If the U.S. had been 50 little countries in 1941 the outcome of WWII would have been much, much different with Germany and Japan winning domination of much of the world. Our United States, united together, along with the remaining allies Britain, Russia, ... won. Split all the countries in Europe in pieces and you are wide open to defeat.

Spain wants to keep taxing Catalunya. Catalunya wants to keep its money. That's all this is.

The author claims that we have not returned to a Franco era style dictatorship, but the campaign of fear and violation of basic liberties has been extreme. Teachers, political satirists, comedians, and regular social media users critical of the government the police violence have been pulled before the courts on charges of inciting hatred. Neighborhood political organizing groups meeting in public plazas are being ID'd by police if we are more than 20 people The effect has been chilling and it feels like an act of civil disobedience to just tweet. In terms of language, Catalonia does not have "exclusive" control. Catalonia is not allowed to give preference to Catalan, and since the central government take over, all official documents are now published in Spanish. Catalan in the schools is under constant attack, with the lead opposition parties wanting to dismantle the Catalan immersion program. Finally, what the author calls a “coup d’état” where the Statute of Autonomy was “repealed” (it wasn’t) was a series of laws passed by the Catalan government that have since been ruled legal by the Constitutional (Supreme) Court. Half of the government was missing because they walked out of the debate. The author is right on one point—this is a European issue. The EU was founded on a series of basic human rights that are being violated in Catalonia, and we are asking Europe to help. We are fighting for our right to exist, free from the imposition of Spanish nationalism.

Mr Cercas forgets to explain why the nationalists in the Catalan government shift their political demands in 2012 in favour of the independence. They had to do it if they didn't want to loose the support of their traditional voters. There had been a radical change of the political opinion of their voters because the Spanish State, through the Constitutional Court, had repealed in 2010 most of the Autonomy Statute that had been previously approved by referendum in Catalonia. It was perceived as a humiliation by the most part of the catalans. Since then, the Spanish political parties had not done anything to correct that mistake. In the contrary, their policy has been a bad business for the catalans, and Mr Cercas doesn't explain nothing about it. And last but not least, the referendum of the October 1st was in the programme of the political parties that won the autonomous elections in 2015. If the Spanish government didn't accept to negotiate the terms of it with the Catalan government, what else the Catalan government had to do according to Mr Cercas?

“Is there any solution to the Catalan problem? In the short term, it depends on the election results. I’m not optimistic. It’s difficult to imagine that enough Catalans will stop believing the tons of lies that were fabricated with public funds and spread by the pro-independence cause.” I would sincerely disagree about your portrayal of a “problem” and parallels between conservative nationalist moments and the Separatists. Catalans have always wanted more autonomy precisely because they are on average much more left than the rest of the country. Not quantified in any of the press is the cultural dissension propagated out of Madrid. It is real and propagated through Spanish advertising and press. Every day I walk around in NYC and hear more and more Catalan spoken. Tomorrow I am having lunch with a Catalan scientist who is considered a national treasure (by the US). Her husband is working on the cutting edge of AI. They both don’t know if they’ll return to Catalunya. Why, because the entire country is a failure. Your young PHDs are leaving in droves because of a profoundly failed central government. The next generation brain drain is already in full swing. You say you are left and yet your piece here reads identical to one published recently by the leader of Ciutadans. Clearly the “problem” is not just political, it is cultural.

Europe is not as innocent as Cercas claims. It has many policies that undermine the national governments. Nowadays it is hard to find a government in Europe that dares to try anything unusual as it might get censored by "Brussels". This is one of the main reasons for the rise of alternative political movements on the right and the left. Europe has specific policies like "Europe of the regions" that aim to promote the regions at the expense of the national states. Divide-and-conquer. That was also the reasoning when it encouraged Slovenia and Croatia to secede from Yugoslavia to join the EU. But this policy has its limits: Having a new state with rabid nationalists in charge is not in their interest.

For many years, I have been an admirer of Mr. Cercas's writing, and I enjoyed reading the Spanish original of this piece. I felt strongly identified with the initial premise of the article - I am also a Spaniard living abroad, and I too have fought the clichés (I remember telling my friends that we all took bullfighting and flamenco classes in school). But I was disheartened by his main point. Mr. Cercas completely fails to discuss the other side of the argument: the fact that, when the Catalan government tried to play by the book, it got its own Constitution dismantled by a politicised court. The central, right-wing government has also used its feud with the Catalan authorities to bolster its position among the rest of Spain, where there is still a strong anti-Catalan prejudice (check the comments page of any national paper). There are indeed no saints in this story, but to equate the brutality of the police action (quickly brushed aside in this article) with the actions of a parliament and government, is at least dishonest. Finally, the unsubstantiated reference to Russian interference does not really deserve much more than derision.

The writer focuses on the process that has led to the current state of affairs in Catalonia. He then brings in the European Union and the phenomena of Brexit (and Trump?). This makes a bit of a dog's breakfast of his argument, unfortunately. At the heart of the issue is the crucial question of the nature of democracy. Because, regardless of the machinations of the Catalan political caste, there is a group of people who feel themselves to be Catalans rather than Spaniards. And they feel their interests are not given due attention. They do actually see (more) independence as a way out. This sentiment is also present in Scotland, in Brittany, in Flanders, in Friesland and in many other places. It manifests itself in movements and gatherings, and may create local majorities for change. This change may be a separate nation or the (re)attachment to a former territory, in the case of ethnic enclaves. The question is then "how valid are these majorities?" and this is not trivial. They exist within the geopolitical reality of a nation-state. But this is itself a compromise of history, and accident even. Its legitimacy is therefore a matter of convenience as much as anything else. Finding a way out of this is one of the most pressing challenges for the EU, as, left unaddressed, this emotional desire for more independence will be hijacked by populists who will stop at nothing.

Spain is a wonderful place. Know it well. Hope everyone there will put politics aside and move forward together.

Some of the arguments put forward here as to why Catalonia should not be allowed independence puzzle me. If the issue is self determination the question of what sort of political entity - democratic, rule of law respecting, wealthy etc... - those wishing to create their own state want to separate from is irrelevant. It's an interesting comment on our present international political climate that earlier Quebec separatists who wanted to leave Canada which is according to the Economist's list one of the most democratic countries in the world were never told, "Hey! You live in a 'democracy'. You have no right to self determination." Surely, those advocating can be criticised for being selfish and tribal or not but does that negate the right of self determination?

As an American it seems to me the most germane point in this piece is that we score so low on the democracy index. The National Popular Vote Count movement is a promising way for average citizens to change our ranking. (That alone won't do it - if the courts don't remedy voter suppression and gerrymandering ... but it's at least a start.)

Given gross mistreatment of Puerto Rico by the US Congress, perhaps reunification with Spain might be considered?

“The legal order of a community is nullified and replaced by a new order in an illegitimate way.” Something to think about isn't it? Outside interference in a national election that seats an authoritarian figure, surrounded by an oligarchical cadre of similar minded individuals. An electoral process that is gerrymandered coupled with disenfranchisement of voters. A legislative body ignoring the will of the people and oppositional parties in order to pass self-serving laws that reward a small group of wealthy people. Sound familiar? I recommend an article published in 1944 by Henry Wallace and reprinted in the NYTimes in May of 2017 if you want to see a bigger picture of where we are today.

It seems to me that the crucial word in this polemic, well-hidden in the middle of the article, is “disloyal”. Crucial because it demonstrates that the argument rests on a fundamentally shaky assumption: that the Catalan people owe loyalty to the Spanish state. This assumption is taken as axiomatic, as not requiring justification. It is however anything but. Clearly the author doesn’t like to hear about Franco, but it can easily be argued that his clerical fascist regime (borne out of disloyalty to the Spanish state he was sworn to serve) and its oppression of non-Castilian nationalities erased the basis on which loyalty of Catalan or Basque or Galician people towards a Spanish state might be founded. So on what Foundation should such loyalty now rest? The author doesn’t explain.

I think it was wrong for them to conduct an illegal referendum. I also think that the central government made it worse by using excessive force in dealing with Catalans.

While I admire Javier Cercas's writing and respect his opinions on Catalan independence, his depiction of Spain is far different from the country I lived in from 1999 to 2009. Cercas claims that no one in Spain has lunch at 3pm, which is absurd. I lived in the provincial capital of Segovia and the hour from 2:30 to 3:30pm was the most sacred of the day: it was the time when all "Spaniards" were home enjoying Mama's cooking. The only people seen on the streets at this time were tourists. As for yelling, it's true that Spaniards I knew only yelled when celebrating a goal by their favorite soccer team. But walk into almost any bar or restaurant, or sit at an outdoor cafe popular with the locals, and you will be astonished at the volume of their collective voices. In my experience, the only thing Spaniards liked as much as Mama's cooking was talking, lubricated by delicious regional red wine or small glasses of beer. And, yes, some people even took a siesta.

It appears from the outside that 'Spain' is not serving its residents. Catalonia, the Basque region have both had strong independence movements. When a people no longer want to be part of a nation are you going to keep them there by force? Or are you going to address their concerns and try to repair the breach? The third option is to begin talks for an orderly separation. None of these are easy, but it appears as if at least one of them is now necessary.

Obviously not Carles Puigdemont. However, given his non-mandate in Cataluña for dissembling Spain’s ration of the Iberian Peninsula, as supported by the few who backed his attempts even IN Cataluña, it’s apparent that almost all Spaniards still are Spaniards. I lived in Spain as an adolescent under Franco, mostly in Madrid, and returned there quite a few times over the decades since to watch it evolve so astonishingly since Chevy Chase reported, week after week, that Francisco Franco was still dead. And the economically self-interested ferment today is nothing like the “worst of Franco’s times” – when, during the Spanish civil war (1936-1939) and as he was consolidating power afterwards, he had gypsies machine-gunned and inspired Picasso to paint “Guérnica”. Yet by the time Chevy Chase noticed him in the mid-‘70s, Franco had become an exceedingly benevolent despot (and dead). But I came to know Barcelona and other Catalán venues as well. My impression was that they regarded themselves as Catalanes and Spaniards, much like some Americans consider themselves Texans and Americans; but that they mostly considered themselves, like just about anyone else in the world, as people who could use a few extra pesetas (Spanish currency before the euro), loose shoes and a predictably-filling supper, even if taken at the ungodly hour of 10:00 PM. Puigdemont’s efforts failed because they were illegitimate, even in the minds of most Catalanes, who regard themselves as Spaniards.

It seems that the author has not addressed one of the core reasons behind the momentum for a referendum on secession: economic control. Yes, Spain is a decentralized system, Catalan as part of that system retain control over many segments of its society. However, I am given to understand that there is (at the very least, perceived) disparity in terms of tax spending. The amount of tax revenue generated by the Catalan taxpayers is highly disproportionate to the amount that Madrid allocates to the region. Given that they have no overall control over how their tax revenue is distributed, it seems like a very legitimate sentiment to call for a referendum. Here lies, the controversy. Catalan did not necessarily want to secede. They simply wanted to have a referendum on whether to pursue that option. Secession was on the horizon, but not imminent. Madrid could have very much done what London did in the face of the Scottish referendum, to plea. At the time, David Cameron plead for the Scottish people to vote remain. One can argue just how much effect that had. One can also argue that Catalan is not Scotland, and that Spain is not the UK. However, as opposed to the charm offensive, Madrid simply went on the offensive. It declared that the vote in and of itself was illegal, further polarizing and escalating the tensions. Though the Catalan regional government has been dissolved, that does not mean those tensions did.

Cercas merely underscores what we who live in a "democracy", i.e., the United States, know well if we are awake. Democracy is not created merely by a political structure. Personal and financial ambition will always be lurking in the shadows of a democratic society to use pervasive misinformation to nullify the best interests of all citizens. Whether through distraction or ignorance, the rights of the many in a democracy will always be at risk because of the tyranny of the few most egotistically ambitious. In Catalonia, these latter fled to Belgium. That should tell Catalans something as they go to the polls.

As someone who loves Soldiers of Salamis and who has never been to Catalonia, I hate to take exception to Cercas, but he writes as a Spaniard and a European, leaving out a Catalan identity. While Puigdemont is demagoging the issue to cover up corruption, so is Rajoy. Rajoy has charged the Catalan government with treason; having read the treason statutes, the only possible applicable section is a pure speech offense, something like lese majeste. Under Rajoy, there have been a lot pure speech prosecutions and lawsuits; just Thursday two Spaniards were jailed and fined for Twitter posts. Cercas also omits the fact that important sections of the autonomy law were declared unconstitutional by the Spanish Supreme Court. That is like if after the formation of the US, the states had been told that they had to pay their debts from the Articles of Confederation days, which the new government had agreed to pay. The Spanish government could have restored those provisions but didn't. Given the Catalan experience under Franco, it's not surprising that Catalans would consider this a threat. Like Cercas, I wish that Europeans would treasure their European identity, but it is clear many Europeans feel their local identities are not being respected. For a multi-ethnic society to work, such fears must be recognized and addressed, not suppressed.

The author's example could apply equally to many other proud and wealthy regions throughout Europe. For example, right up to the abolition of physical boundaries and customs posts within the E.U., anyone entering Germany from Salzburg would be greeted by a huge sign boasting: "Welcome to the Free State of Bavaria." But Bavarians, no matter how much they openly mocked the northerners and Prussians, would never have dreamt of seceding from the Federal Republic. In Spain's case, it appears that blind personal ambition drove the Catalan independence movement. The flames of a 'false referendum' were stoked by Mr. Puigdemont who fled instead of facing the music. In my travels across Spain, including Barcelona, I had the chance to discuss Catalan independence with many Spaniards in Castillian (I don't speak Catalan), and invariably I got the impression that independence voters were in a Brexit bind, both wanting and fearing independence. There is nothing wrong with local pride, but splitting off every disgruntled region from its nation state, especially aided by a campaign of lies and fear-mongering, is self-defeating: The heart may be the body's most important organ, but separating it from the body without a plan destroys not just the body but the heart.

It is a fiction to pretend that nationalism led to Europe’s 20th century collective suicide as a world leader and that the only possible response would be a Supra-national state. The truth is that it was certain ideologies, in which not surprisingly antisemitism was always an essential element, that created the issue, not the self-organizing of peoples into states. If there were no EU, would France go to war with Germany today? No it wouldn’t and that is because these countries are both functioning democracies whose fanatical ideologies have been marginalized. If it is to thrive, the EU would be better off if it organized itself as a federation in which peoples who share a common language and culture (like the Catalans, Basques, Scots and others) should have the right to decide to remain in their current country or separate peacefully while remaining in a federal system. In the end of the day, truly representative democarcy is the best guarantor of internal stability.

I was puzzled with how the American media covered this story. It was presented as a freedom fight of an oppressed people. And yet the Catalans are part of a modern, prosperous, progressive democracy. Member of the European Union and mostly autonomous. What more do they want? Ethnic purity? That is anti-democratic and racist. And it seemed as if the American press was on their side! Thank you for this article. It is a welcome dose of reality. Americans have to resist false narratives pushed by the Russians to cause instability and chaos in the West. Memo to Americans: Franco has been dead a long time, stop hating Spain.

Those favoring Catalan independence are thinking only of that, not of Europe as a whole.

A column worth thinking about. However, it's worth remembering that it only tells one side of the story, For most of the history of Spain, the Catalan region has not been a part of Spain. For most of the time Catalonia has been part of Spain, it has been included under coercion. It is no wonder that the Madrid government was so heavy-handed in dealing with the referendum on Catalan autonomy (which would not have had the force of law, but would have expressed the will of the people of Catalonia to leave Spain). A marriage counsellor will have difficulty bringing harmony to a marriage that began with the woman being kidnapped and kept tied up in the house. And there are Catalans still living who remember the Madrid government's infamous behavior as described in George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. I actually do hope that Catalonia remains in Spain. This is partly for selfish reasons (lack of peace in Europe would affect us in the United States) and partly because I think it would be better for the peoples of Catalonia and of the rest of Spain. But secession may not happen. Both pro-independence Catalans and the heavy-handed rulers in Madrid are working to make a break happen.

The EU will never become a United States of Europe, a grand unifying cultural institution. Politically, the two major trends are strong-man quasi dictatorships or the atomization of former nation states into neo-tribal entities, which really amount to the same thing. The answer in Europe is to let nations disintegrate, while at the same time enhancing the central bureaucracy in Brussels as the arbitrator of economic and political disputes. Borders should be open and therefore relatively meaningless (who cares if one is traveling to, or working in, "Spain", "Catalonia" or "Andalucia"?). Mr. Cercas is wrong that "all collective identity is a fiction". Collectivization is not a fiction, it is an essential feature of human life and a function of the technologies we use. As electronic technologies spread, they are impacting how we organize societies, how we see identity and difference. It's time to understand and adapt our political institutions to these fundamental shifts, not to hold on to outdated models.

If there is a historical reality, it is that virulent nationalism has always been the cause of disruption and wars. All nations are made up of previously separate entities which come together through various ways: conquests, marriages, voluntary adhesion. In the case of Catalonia, one must go back at least five hundred years and even then, it was still part of the kingdom of Aragon. If Catalonia were an oppressed region, one could accept the need for separation. But it is one of the most prosperous in Spain, with a nearly total freedom to govern itself, as the writer states. Against its political freedom, economic well-being, self-government, the independence movement offers the claim that part of a country has the right to separate itself from the rest. And this even when less than half wants to pursue that path, and when such an event, if it took place, would bring about a chaotic situation for the region and the rest of the country. If Great Britain, an established and stable country, is encountering difficulties separating itself from the UE, imagine what would happen to the region's economy outside of the European market. As it is, more than 2,000 businesses have moved their headquarters from the region. It is a nationalistic folly that refuses to think of its consequences.