Anti-Catalan sentiment is the collective name given to various trends inSpain,France andItaly that expresses disdain, discrimination, or hatred forCatalonia, toCatalans,Catalan culture,Catalan nationalism,Catalan language or itshistory. It can also be referred to asAnti-Catalanism (Catalan:anticatalanisme,IPA:[ˌantikətələˈnizmə]) orCatalanophobia.[1]
In a historical context, anti-Catalanism expresses itself as a hostile attitude towards theCatalan language,people,traditions or anything identified with Catalonia. In a political context it may express itself as the reaction to a perceived intrusion of Catalan political nationalism into the area. In its most extreme circumstances, this may also be referred asCatalanophobia, though it is not a phobia per se. Several political movements, known for organisingboycotts of products from Catalonia, are also actively identified with anti-Catalanism. Anti-Catalan sentiment often expresses the denial of the existence, in any degree or form, of Catalannational identity, whether in the past or in the present.
Sometimes, Catalans abroad or within Catalonia have experienced verbal harassment or denial of provision of goods and services, often in reaction to the use of Catalan language.[2][3]
Historian Antoni Simon states that between the 12th and 15th centuries, theCrown of Aragon's military expansion intoSicily,Sardinia andsouthern Italy and the entry of Catalan merchants into these markets generated a deep sense of hostility against the Catalans - often identified as Spaniards. Reflections can be found in the literary works ofDante Alighieri,Giovanni Boccaccio,Francesco Petrarca,Luigi Alamanni,Pietro Aretino orSerafino Aquilano. He states that it was an anti-Catalan sentiment that was more cultural-linguistic than political-territorial, due to the protests over the election of Alfonso de Borja in 1455 as PopeCalixtus III for being "barbaric and Catalan".
The dynastic union of theCrown of Castile with the Crown of Aragon took place through theCatholic Monarchs. The Castilian hegemony in the newly establishedMonarchy of Spain left the peripheral realms under a royal government located in Madrid since 1561, a government composed of people mainly of Castilian origin.
At the beginning of the 16th century, KingFerdinand II of Aragon was called, in a derogatory manner, "viejo catalanote" ("old Catalan fool") by the Castilian nobility, being expelled from Castile and seen as an intruder after the death of QueenIsabella I of Castile.[4]
In accordance with theNueva Planta decree of 1716 promulgated byPhilip V after theWar of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), most of the public legislation and institutions of thePrincipality of Catalonia was abolished,[5] leading to the marginalization of the Catalan language and culture, favoring instead theSpanish language. The administrative use of the Catalan language was replaced it with Spanish. While theoretically the replacement solely affected the Royal Audience, the king provided with secret instructions to the royal officers in Catalan territory: they "will take the utmost care to introduce the Castilian language, for which purpose he will give the most temperate and disguised measures so that the effect is achieved, without the care being noticed."[6]
The Nueva Planta decrees were royal measures aimed at suppressing those who were defeated during the Succession War, and it initiated the creation of a French-style Spanish centralized state in accordance with the laws ofCastile, and for the first time founded the Kingdom of Spain. This centralization took quite some time during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reaching maximum levels during thedictatorship of Franco and theWhite Terror.
In the 19th century, the Spanish economy was largely dominated by agricultural production such as cereals from Castile, intended for sale on European markets. In these regions, the bourgeoisie and the landowners, supported by the central state, were favorable to free trade policy. On the contrary, the Catalan bourgeoisie was largely industrial and a producer oftextiles, therefore interested in significant customs duties. This fight mobilized most of Catalan society. This struggle creates “in the rest of Spain the image of a selfish and interested Catalonia, determined to achieve its ends even at the expense of any Spanish interest”.
Thedictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), not only saw the suppression of democratic freedoms, but also theCatalan language and culture were crushed at an unprecedented level, being excluded from the education system and relegated to the family sphere.Castillian (Spanish) became the only language of education, administration, business and the media. During theSpanish Civil War period, despite the presence ofCatalans serving in theRebel army, the rhetorical use of Catalanophobia by theRebel faction led directly to menaces and outbreaks of ethnic conflict of genocidal nature, asPaul Preston points out in "The Spanish Holocaust":[7]
"In the days following the occupation ofLleida (...) republican prisoners identified as Catalans were executed without trial. Whoever they heard speaking in Catalan was very likely to end up arrested. The arbitrary brutality of the anti-Catalan repression reached such a point that Franco himself had to issue an order stipulating that mistakes that could later be regretted should be avoided”..."There are examples of the murder of peasants for no other apparent reason than that of speaking Catalan."
Even theFalange member Maximiano García recorded the extreme forms of Catalanophobia from the Rebel Faction:
"You could frequently hear in certain media the statement that Catalonia should be sown with salt. It reaches such high levels of xenophobia that it would be General Franco himself who would issue an order to stop the genocide that was being committed."
On 15 January 1939Tarragona fell to Franco's troops and the victors celebrated a solemnCatholic mass in thecathedral led by the cleric of thecathedral of Salamanca José Artero who in hishomily said: "Catalan scum! You are not worthy of the sun that shines on you." Arrests and summary trials immediately began.[8] On 26 January Franco's troops took Barcelona. According to the testimony of the British military attaché to Franco's government, the first ones to enter the Catalan capital were the troops of the Navarre Brigades of General Solchaga "not because they have fought better, but because they hate better. Especially when the object of hatred is Catalonia or a Catalan."
Scholars Rafael Aracil, Joan Oliver and Antoni Segura considered that until 1951, the persecution of Catalan language was "total".[9] In some places students had to denounce fellow students who spoke Catalan.[9] During this period, The Catalan language was also prohibited on tombstones.[9] Between 1939 and 1943 book printing in Catalan virtually disappeared.[10]
With the defeat ofNazi Germany in 1945, some of the harsh mesures began to be lifted and, while Spanish language remained the sole promoted one, limited number of Catalan literature began to be tolerated. However, works aimed at young people were restricted to limit the learning of the written language. Later on, opening of the regime allowed a small change in the marginalization of the language, such as the broadcast in 1964 of the first television program in Catalan onTVE (Teatre català) and theNova Cançó (New Song) (1961) movement, though there still were limits such as the ban onJoan Manuel Serrat singing in Catalan at theEurovision Song Contest in 1968.[11][12]
In 1968, in a discussion about cultural activity in Catalan language, Catalan businessman J.B. Cendrós tried to get the then Franco's MinisterManuel Fraga Iribarne to lift the order to withdraw from circulation the first edition of the "Illustrated History of Catalonia". To the contrary, Fraga ended up glorifying the various times that Spain had militarily attacked Catalonia and that they were ready to do it again if necessary.
In 1992 the police operation known as "Operation Garzón" saw the arrest of 45 Catalan pro-independence activists and politicians on the eve of theSummer Olympics held in Barcelona, under the accusation to be members of the armed Catalan pro-independence organisationTerra Lliure without real proof. 25 of the arrested were kept in solitary confinement. They denounced torture at the hands of theSpanish police[13] and threats of violence and rape to them and their families, as well as constant Anti-Catalan and Catalanophobic insults.[14]
The regrowth of anti-Catalan sentiment in Spain during the first decade of the 21st century was marked, among other reasons, by the reform of theStatute of Autonomy of Catalonia and the demands from Catalan society for the return of the "Salamanca Papers", a series of documents massively confiscated from individuals and organizations in Catalonia during theSpanish Civil War byFranco's army in order to enact a harsh repression.
In 2006 the Spanish conservativePeople's Party (PP) launched an advertising campaign against "the pact of the Catalan Statute and the grievances for Andalusia". However, 14 articles from the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia that the PP deemed as unconstitutionals had an identical wording in theStatute of Autonomy of Andalusia, which was fully supported by the party chaired byMariano Rajoy.[15]
On the other hand, in theautonomous community of Valencia, anti-Catalanism has been part of the strategy of the political right since the democratic transition, being instrumental the Valencian right-wing regionalist movement known as "Blaverism". On 11 April 1993, thepro-Catalan independence andanti-fascist Valencian activistGuillem Agulló was assassinated by a group ofneo-nazis andSpanish nationalists inMontanejos. Family members and left-wing and pro-independence organizations denounced that the motive for the crime had been political, since the young people who intervened in the murder were known for their Spanish and fascist ideology and that they also knew of the anti-fascist ideology of Agulló.[16]
In the 2010s, some organizations andfake news blogs such asDolça Catalunya, closely linked to the Spanish far-right and the ultra-Catholicism, have maintained and become a vehicle of anti-Catalanism, pseudohistory andlanguage secessionism.[17][18][19][20]
The language and culture of a population of around 10 millionCatalan-Valencian speakers is virtually non-existent in the Spanish media. At the same time, the media and social networks are a vehicle for the dissemination of a subtle or explicit Catalanophobia[21][22] accompanying banal Spanish nationalism.The incorporation of varying degrees of Catalanophobia into thebanal nationalism of large sections of Spanish society is sublimated in cries of attack such as "a por ellos, oé" by the population[23][24] but also by the Spanish law enforcement forces, during the police suppression of the2017 Catalan independence referendum.[25]
The reality of those feelings has been expressed in studies carried out by different opinion institutes. Constantly, Catalans appeared as the least valued people in Spain; after them would generally be the Basques. In 2020, the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió carried out a survey asking about the likes and dislikes of Spaniards. According to the results of the report, Catalonia is the autonomous community that, by far, generate the least sympathy from the rest.[26]
Anti-Catalanism can be found in the debates concerning thehistory of Catalonia and its relationship with the history of Spain, generally in non-academic spaces, also being part of banal nationalism. Mostly based on the remaining clichés from Spanish romantichistoriography of Castilian basis, promoted and later consolidated by theFrancoist dictatorship, Spanish pseudo-historical arguments towards Catalonia seek to minimize or deny any role, external visibility or political organization specific to the Catalan people in the past.[27]
It became particularly widespread during the first decades of the 21st century due to the increasing demands for Catalan self-determination, being often used as a tool to deny any possible historical legitimization of Catalan demands.[28] The dissemination of pseudo-historical arguments was facilitated by media and individuals opposed to Catalonia's self-determination and by those linked to the political right, as well as the diffusion bysocial networks.
Some of the recurrent topics are:
