Spanish Coverage On The Separatist Movement

On December 6, 1978, the Constitution of Spain was ratified, the old regime of Franco dissolved, and the region of Catalonia granted a statute of autonomy. Such began the modern era of separatism in Catalonia that had lasted centuries, dating as far back as the War of Spanish Succession in the early eighteenth century, and tracing its routes to Charlemagne’s capture of the region from the Muslims at the turn of the ninth century. Even before the new constitution, the separatist movement began to regain steam following Franco’s death, with the PSOE (socialist party) calling for the right to self-determination in 1976. The ERC, comparatively, did not originally support independence, but over time developed their agenda to support it. These same

In Catalonia, coverage of the movement ranges from vehemently separatist to vehemently unionist, but as one leaves the region, the conflict is presented in a much different light. The vast majority of Spanish coverage on the separatist movement is blatantly against secession, as honest coverage is few and far between. Moreover, to the north, English presentation of the issue is overwhelmingly anti-separatist as well. In contrast, American media tends to see the Catalan separatists in the right, but overall grants little attention to the Spanish-centered

While some texts, such as Escucha, Cataluña Escucha, España, argue for a degree of compromise despite still maintaining a clear unionist stance, others in Spain show their colors loud and clear: Rupérez’s La Unidad Nacional passionately argues against separatism, often employing invalid logic. With lines such as “we have to recognize that something much more grave and profound: the end of Spain as we know it and how it has been recognized by its people and the people of the world for centuries,” Rupérez feeds on emotion and throws logic to the wayside, as bias overwhelms fact. He goes on to declare the independence movement as based solely in economic interest, a misleading statement, and consistently employs a patronizing, putting-down tone when discussing facets of the independence movement. The one-sidedness of Spanish opinion in the affair is shown by Micó and Carbonell, who in 2017 revealed that in online media in Spain “the defense of Spanish unity (is) absolute… the percentage of news pieces with critical headlines… were more numerous than in any other type of media.” A 2017 study of newspaper coverage on the conflict, by Xicoy et al, looked at newspapers produced in the Basque Country, Spain (Madrid), Valencia, and Catalonia. What it found was that each of the Spanish (Madrid) and Valencia dailies, along with the Basque paper El Correo, “(argue) that Catalonia has no