One of the fiesta events in my township, Poio, will be an exhibition of granite carvings done by the pupils of the specialist college behind my house. To my great pleasure, they often put examples around their car park, which I walk through every day with my dog, Ryan. Here’s a nice recent example. Of a stingray:
And here, of course, is the lower half of the college’s car park . . .
The Spanish songbird arrested in connection with corruption in Marbella gave her first concert since that event on Saturday. For this you could have hired a balcony in the main square of Valladolid for a mere 6,000 euros. Clearly, it’s an ill wind which blows no good. As we wait on further developments on the southern coast, we’re all trying to figure out why the tax authorities appear not to have known/worried that her declared income was only 100,000 euros a year, that her house cost 1.5 million euros and that during one 2 week period she paid 3,000 euros cash a day into her bank account. For those not in the know, this is the limit above which your bank will report the transaction to the tax authorities. But not if you deposit 3,000 a day for even an entire year, apparently.
The prostrate but desperate gentleman who took his motorised bed onto an autovia in search of a shag got 2 pages in El Pais yesterday. I think the theme was the sexual needs of invalids but my quick scan didn’t throw up any suggestion the prominence of brothels in Spanish culture was at all remarkable. Which, of course, in Spain it isn’t.
And now the heavy stuff . . .
I’ve finally produced my 3-year compilation on GALICIAN NATIONALISM. This has been difficult, one reason being that the posts overlap not just with those on Catalunia and the Basque Country but also with more general themes such as Language and Politics. So there is a degree of repetition that you’ll just have to forgive me for.
I’m happy to admit that I’ve been tough on the Galician nationalists. This is essentially because it’s taken me some time to differentiate between Galicianists [supportable], nationalists [tolerable] and Nationalists [dismissible]. For those ignorant of the distinctions, here’s something I wrote a couple of weeks ago:-
Some readers will know I’ve struggled over the last 3 years with the definition of Nationalism, one problem being that a more accurate label might well be Regionalism. Most recently – and in the context of Galicia - I’ve decided there are 3 categories, viz:-
The Galicianist: The least extreme. Believes in promoting the local language and culture. Doesn’t really care whether Galicia is called a ‘nation’ or not. I put myself in this box.
The nationalist: The middle ground. Believes, for example, in taking more controversial measures to foster the language, particularly in schools. Insists on Galicia being called a Nation or a National Reality or something like this. Represented by the Galician Nationalist Party, the BNG
The Nationalist: Holds extreme views such as a demand that Galicia be an independent nation and that the Spanish language be eradicated from Galicia. I’ve caricatured these people as youths still living with their parents who haven’t the faintest idea of even personal independence, never mind the real political world. But this may be unfair.
That said. . . .
GALICIAN NATIONALISM
2004
I suspect it’s not widely known just how much hard work it took to make Spain even appear to be a single political entity. And now it’s beginning to look like it will be an even bigger challenge to maintain the appearance. The two macro forces at work are post-Franco decentralisation and EU regionalism. The biggest ‘nationalist’ [i. e. breakaway] parties are in the Basque country, Catalunia and Galicia. Each region has its own proud language and culture but the major difference between them is that the first two are industro- commerical, and so rich, whereas Galicia is agricultural and poor. The former could more than survive on their own whereas Galicia needs the national trough. Every day now seems to bring a new proposal from the north east of the country in the direction of independence, backed by terrorism in the case of the Basque country. Is it too much to fear that Spain will ultimately break up unto the weight of these forces?
All of Spain’s ‘nationalist’ parties [i. e. the ones which want to see Spain broken up] boycotted Monday’s celebrations of the Constitution of 1979. Galicia, it seems, is demanding that it be called a ‘national community’, instead of ‘Autonomous Community’ as now. At least it’s one syllable less of a mouthful.
The latest new expression for ‘Spain’ is Estado Confederal. Or Confederated State, I guess. Which reminds me, the nationalist parties throughout Spain have taken exception to the King banging on about the indivisibility of Spain in his Christmas address. What a cheek.
2005
Needless to say, a Galician nationalist party has said that they will be making Basque-like proposals for Galicia. I very much doubt that anyone in Spain will take this very seriously, unlike the threats from Catalunian parties. For one thing, Galicia is not rich enough to survive alone.
The Galician Nationalist Party have demanded that the government insist that British nuclear submarines refrain from sailing anywhere near the north west coast. Doubtless they’ll be asking the same thing of the French, the Russians and the Americans.
Waiting at the bank today for one of those face-to-face meetings which are a staple of Spanish life, I happened upon a brochure from the Galician Nationalist Party. What was fascinating about this was that it recommended rejection of the EU Constitution. The reasons centred on the fact Galicia didn’t have a seat on the Council of Ministers and so could not protect its own interests. Instead it had to leave this to the capitalist lackeys of the Spanish government. I can’t see the latter losing much sleep over this attempt to lift the No vote into double figures.
In Galicia – you may recall – the BNG nationalist party campaigned for a No vote, on the grounds that Constitution wasn’t socialist enough. This had the effect of delivering the lowest No vote in the entire country. So I suppose Mr Chirac would regard this as only a moderate triumph.
The media have announced that the Galician general election campaign has begun. This came as a surprise to me as I genuinely thought it had kicked off weeks ago. Surveys suggest that, for the first time in 20 years, the ruling conservative party [and its 82 year-old President] may be ousted by a coalition of socialist and nationalist parties. The said President, Mr Fraga, has warned Galicians not to vote for these as ‘they have ideas different from ours about Galicia, Spain, Europe and the world’. Silly me; I thought this was the whole point of opposition parties. As the last relic from the Franco era, I guess it’s hardly surprising that Mr Fraga doesn’t.
The Galician election campaign is only a few days old but already the politicians have moved from badmouthing each other to insulting the intelligence of the voters. The socialist party have said they’ll provide a computer for every home in Galicia and give 5,000 euros to every child who wants to study English in the UK. And the nationalists have promised to arrange for surgeons to work 24 hours a day, 365 days a years until the hospital waiting lists are eradicated. Mr Fraga has simply said that to vote for anyone else would encourage nationalism and so bring terrorism to Galicia.
By this time next week we’ll know whether Galicia has joined the Basque Country and Catalunia in having a coalition government composed of Socialists and Nationalists. To me, it’s surreal to watch these ‘nations’ [as they call themselves] fighting to weaken their links with the Spanish state while Spain is trying to submerge itself in a European superstate. Ironically the Basque, Catalan and Galician nationalists all favour this superstate - in the insane belief, I imagine, that they’ll have more control over their affairs as satrapies of Brussels than as ‘autonomous communities’ in Spain. Such is the power of dreams. Of course, it would all be very different if the EU weren’t the cash cow it’s been for Spain for 20 years. And when this eventually stops, it’ll be interesting to see how the traditionally rule-averse Spanish then view the Brussels regulations machine. As the French Foreign Minister might say, longer term it defies all logic.
‘Don Manuel’ Fraga’s final appeal to the Galician electorate was that they give him a final term in office in gratitude for everything he’d done for Galicia over the last decade or three. An editorial in El Mundo rightly commented that this was a pathetic argument in a modern democracy and added it was disgraceful that the Galician electorate had to chose between an 82 year-old of limited longevity and a socialist-nationalist coalition of unknown policies. We’ll soon know what fist they make of the challenge of choosing between the devil and the shallow red sea.
Well, you’ll all be dying to know whether Mr Fraga will still be in power when he’s 87. It seems not. His PP party has lost their overall majority and will have to cede government to the Socialist/Nationalist coalition. At least until it breaks up. So, interesting times ahead.
Just picking up on yesterday’s dubbing theme . . . Possibly even more irritating than the use of the same few voices in every film is the dubbing [by the same bloody voices!] of the actresses used in TV ads, even though they’re clearly speaking Spanish. The actresses are chosen, of course, for their beauty but I suppose the dubbers’ voices are preferred because they’re comfortably familiar. They could hardly be anything else! Strangest of all is the dubbing into Galician of every Spanish language film or soap opera on the local channel, even though there can hardly be anyone in Galicia who doesn’t understand Spanish. Not surprisingly, a local paper last week featured the burgeoning Galician dubbing industry. I suppose we can expect a lot more when the nationalists get one hand on the reins of power. I wonder if English films are dubbed on Welsh TV.
One of the strange things about the Galician elections [as yet undecided] is that support for the socialist/nationalist coalition was weaker in the interior than along the coast. Given that the economy of the depopulating hinterland is markedly inferior, you might have thought people there would welcome the policies of a socialist government. The answer, I’m told, lies in the fact that the old-style political barons [los caciques] still hold sway up in the hills.
In terms of votes, the big losers in the Galician elections were the Nationalist party, which lost a significant number of seats. But, in a hung parliament, they have a share of power for the first time. And they’ve wasted no time in flexing their muscles. Within 24 hours of the final count, their leader demanded a tripling of the central budget for the region and the recognition that Galicia, ‘like Catalunia’, is a nation. One wonders how much of this the Socialists will take before deciding they’d be better off in a coalition with a post-Fraga PP party.
Conversation in a newsagent’s this morning:-
Me: The book with the Voz de Galicia today, is it in Spanish or Galician? I can’t tell because it has a cellophane wrapper around it.
Shopkeeper: It’s in Galician.
Me: Are you sure, as the title [Galicia vista por un inglés] seems to be Spanish?
Shopkeeper: That’s because it’s the same in both languages.
Me: But isn’t the Gallego for Galicia ‘Galiza’?
Shopkeeper: Good God, no. Only the nationalists use that word. You’ll have to learn Gallego.
Me: Give me a break. It’s tough enough learning Spanish right now.
Other customer: Yes, and even we locals don’t understand half of ‘Academic’ Gallego.
I took this to be a reference to the language regulated by the Royal Academy for the Galician language. The members of this august establishment would seem to talk to each other in a tongue which is much of a mystery to the rest of the populace. From time to time they emerge from their ivory tower to issue edicts [such as “‘Gracias’ will henceforth be ‘Grazas’”] which are then ignored by all and sundry. It’s like Latin professors conversing with each other - except, in place of a dead language, they have one which is at least partially stillborn.
Interesting messages from Fonso and Portorosa after my mention of Galician yesterday. I hadn’t realised there was such a gap between spoken and formal, written Gallego. Although I did know that even spoken Gallego differs between places within Galicia. Of course, problems [and stupidities] always arise when some appointed body tried to regulate a living language. And the situation is even worse when the process is politicised. The French do this for defensive purposes [against the encroachment of English], whereas the Catalans, the Basques and even the Galician Xunta do it in pursuance of nationalist goals. Anglo Saxons probably don’t realise how lucky they are not to have one or more language academies. But at least, when there’s no dictatorship, the rules can be ignored with total impunity.
Following the Catalunian example, the Galician nationalist party has prepared a revised Constitution which refers to the region as a nation. Not content with this, they’ve included a provision which expresses the aim that what are currently bits of Asturias and Castile y León will one day become part of Galicia, in recognition of their ‘historical, cultural and economic character’. Perhaps there’ll be an Anschluss next. Needless to say, the Presidents of Asturias and C y L have not responded too enthusiastically to this naked land grab. It’s at times like this that one wonders when Spain will enter the 21st century and stop playing these divisive games.
2006
The Galician nationalist party, the BNG, lost votes at the last election but, paradoxically, gained power by becoming the coalition party of the much larger Socialist Party. Support, of course, has to be bought so last week we saw the introduction of a measure making it compulsory for candidates for certain government jobs to answer entrance exam papers in Galician. I suspect we’ll see more of this nonsense so it was good to see the leading regional newspaper – The Voz de Galicia – roundly condemning this for being gratuitously divisive. They also criticised the Xunta’s Christmas card for having a montage of Galicia’s famous sons which omitted those of the wrong political stamp. So there’s some hope we won’t end up as the poor man’s Catalunia.
Well, the handover of power in the Galician PP party went more smoothly than anyone might have predicted six months ago, though one of the feuding barons from the hinterland decided to stay away from the party conference which saw Manuel Fraga hand over the presidency to Núñez Feijóo. Mr Fraga, despite being at least 82, will not retire from politics but will move to the Senate in Madrid. Mr Feijóo says he’s a man of the people and will base his politics on a ‘Galaico-Spanish ideology’. I think this means he’ll be less nationalist than the ruling Socialist party and their coalition partners, the Galician Nationalist party.
The Galician political parties have, naturally enough, decided to get together to see how quickly they can follow the Catalan precedent. However, it finally seems to have dawned on some of them that the Catalunian model of finance based on regional net domestic product would be a disaster for Galicia . On the other hand, they like the idea that Madrid has accepted the Spanish state has an ‘historical debt’ it must repay to Catalunia. They feel this means Galicia is likewise owed some 21 million euros. On the third hand, there are fears that diminished national coffers means half of what was in the Galicia Plan will now go to Catalunia. All very confusing and all part of the rich mosaic of regional comparisons and enmities that is Spain in early 2006. Things can only get worse. Or at least more interesting. Especially if it’s correct that emulation of the Catalan model across the board would mean the state losing 15% of its revenue and less money flowing from the centre to the poorer regions of Asturias, old Castile, Estremadura, Galicia and Andalucia. Turning them into 3rd class citizens, as someone has suggested.
As for that emotional language issue, one of the Galician nationalists/regionalists has come out with this gem – ‘The Galician language is the best key to our identity and the strongest guarantee we have of participating successfully in the globalised world.’ He looks forward to the time when Gallego is an official language of the EU. Or perhaps the lingua franca of global commerce.
Faced with the prospect of a several rounds of Regional Leap Frog and Beggar My Regional Neighbour, the Council of State has suggested the Spanish Constitution be changed so as to place a ceiling on the powers of the region. They seem unaware that, in politics, maxima have a habit of becoming minima. And, anyway, the lid is already off the pressure cooker.
As if to prove this, representatives of each of the more regionalist/nationalist Autonomous Communities have come together in a group calling itself GALEUSCAT. If you haven’t worked this out, they’re from the ‘nations’ of , the Basque Country [Euskadi] and Catalunia. One of their activities will be to lobby supranational bodies like the EU in Brussels. In 3 languages not understood there, I guess.
Spain last night had the equivalent of the Oscars for its own cinema industry. The consensus in the press was that the ceremony was unprofessional, overlong and tediously boring. And these were the good reviews. In fact, the premier award – for the best film – was made at 2am, which gives you something of an insight into the Spanish timetable. And everybody smoked like chimneys, apparently. As did the spokesman at a press conference of the Galician Nationalist Party yesterday. He was, he said, merely showing solidarity with President Zapatero and the leader of the Catalan coalition, who apparently smoked all the way through the Constitution negotiations. But then I think I might even have taken up the obnoxious habit myself, if I’d had to take part in these.
Politics frequently seems to me to be a tougher art in Spain than most any other countries. For one thing, there are the nationalist/regionalist demands from at least 3 of the ‘autonomous communities’. Secondly [and not unrelatedly], there are coalitions on top of coalitions, on top of coalitions, on top of coalitions - at state, regional, provincial and town hall levels. And then there’s the Catholic Church. Frankly, it’s possibly a miracle anything happens at all. An example of a masterstroke in this world of Byzantine complexity is said to be the just-announced decision of President Zapatero to send the long-time mayor of La Coruña to Rome as ambassador to the Vatican. In one fell swoop, he has apparently pleased the Church [for sending a ‘reactionary’], the Socialist Party of Galicia [for promoting an illustrious member] and the Galician Nationalist Party [for getting rid of a thorn in their side.] Some days are diamonds. But not many, I guess.
My Galician friend, Acedre, tells us the version of Gallego used in the placard shown yesterday is ‘Galego reintegrado’, the form closest to Portuguese. According to my third friend, Theremon the Cockroach Sexer/Killer*, this is the one most favoured by Galician Nationalists. Of the following classes of the language I listed last November, I guess it belongs to the third:-
1. Literary Galician. Unintelligible to most
2. Academic Galician. Also largely indecipherable. May be very similar to 1. The preserve of the Royal Academy. Taught in schools. Changes annually, I’m told.
3. Popular Galician. Understood by virtually everyone in the region and spoken by a significant percentage, albeit with major differences between provinces. And between the coast and the mountains. Doesn’t change annually.
4. TV Galician. This is a mixture of all these and is spoken by ambitious young people who didn’t start to speak the language until their 20s and so have a vocabulary and a [‘Castillano’] accent that amuse the real speakers.
Looking at a map in the Archaeological Museum yesterday, I was struck by how large the Kingdom of León had been in the 10th century. Basically, it covered the NW corner of the Iberian peninsula, taking in León, Castile, Cantabria, Asturias, and a good chunk of North Portugal. So where on earth are the León nationalists? And why are they being left behind by the Catalans, Basques and even the Galicians? OK, they might have to give up on a claim on North Portugal but surely, in today’s pluralist Spain, everything else is up for grabs if they’re determined enough. After all, in Spain history counts. Above all else, it sometimes seems.
The Galician Nationalist Party has asked the Spanish Royal Academy to omit from the next edition of their dictionary the definitions of ‘Galician’ as 1. Stupid [in Costa Rica], and 2. Stutterer [in El Salvador]. They have a point, I think. Though the first one must surely apply to parents who give sports cars to unqualified 18 year olds. Or even to qualified 18 year olds, for that matter.
The region of Andalucia has joined Catalunia in referring to itself as a ‘national reality’ in the preamble to its new Constitution. Actually, ‘reality’ seems to me to be the one thing lacking in all these developments. But, notwithstanding that, it can’t be long now before Spain [taking a leaf out of the New Labour book] becomes The New United Nations. Or perhaps just The United National Realities plus The Canaries.
The problem with nationalists is, of course, they lack perspective. The Galician government’s coalition partner is the Galician National Party [BNG] and the President of the latter is something of a loose cannon. A few months ago he prompted a spat with the governments of Asturias and Castilla y León by suggesting certain border towns there should become part of Galicia because they spoke Gallego. And now he’s provoked a furious reaction on the part of the government of Extremadura by suggesting it’s not doing enough to preserve a language spoken in a few towns there which is a related to the Latinate precursor of both Galician and Portuguese which once held sway over the western half of Iberia. The air is rife with insults from both sides. No wonder Samuel Johnson felt patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel.
There are now 6 Spanish regions demanding to be called ‘nationalities’ – Catalunia, the Balearic Islands, Andalucia, Aragon, Valencia and, of course, Galicia. Surveying the scene in Iraq, the editor of Prospect magazine recently commented that “85 years after the British first tried to create one, Iraq still lacks the basis of a European nation state.” I wonder what he’d make of Spain, more than 500 years after Ferdinand and Isabella’s ‘unification’. Cue for some nationalist or other to write to me with the true but irrelevant claim that his bit of Spain had its own king long before Los Reyes Catolicos happened along.
I need to expand a comment I made the other day about independence and money. Here in Spain, the two regions which are the most independence-driven are also the richest - Catalunia and the Basque Country. Galicia, on the other hand, is poor and the ‘nationalist’ movement here is weak. They couldn’t afford to go it alone and they know it. The others could and would be better off, if they did, as they would no longer subsidise the rest of Spain. There’s a parallel here between Scotland and Galicia. Although Scotland is a country and Galicia ‘only’ an Autonomous Region, the latter [I believe] actually has more devolved power than the former. But the Scots, being as canny as they are reputed to be, have never sought full independence and have settled – though only quite recently - for ‘devolution’. The reason for this is twofold - and very simple. 1. The Scots are subsidised enormously by the English, and 2. For hundreds of years, able Scots have fled south to occupy a disproportionate number of top positions in every walk of British life. In fact, you only have to look at the cabinet of Tony Blair [a Scot with an English accent] to realise how powerful the Scottish mafia really is. So, why bother with independence when you can take someone else’s money for the relatives back home and run the whole of the UK at the same time? Catalunia and the Basque Country often quote Scotland as an example of what they want to be. One is forced to ask just how much they understand about things outside their own onion patch. And the question arising is – would the ‘nationalist’ movements of Catalunia and the Basque Country really be so strong if either they were poor or if they had in the past had the sense to follow the Scottish model that they now claim to want to follow? Of course, with full independence would come your own national football team but not many of us think this alone is worth killing for. Though I can’t vouch for my NZ friend.
My blog of yesterday was picked up by another of those trackers, this time one aimed at comments on Galicia. It’s called chuza.org but so far I’ve not been able to find out what chuza means. Anyway, I’m referred to as ‘Scottish’, which is a quarter right. As would be Welsh, Irish and English. Take your pick. A four-fold non-nationalist. Or a ‘Brit’ as we have been called for about 200 years. I wonder how long it will be before everyone in Spain can be both local and national. Or national and supranational, as some of them would prefer. But it doesn’t matter how they see themselves, just so long as they stop being so narrow-mindedly provincial.
I had thought the Cornish language was dead but I now read there are 4-500 people who speak it fluently. Cornish is a Celtic language and a close relation of both Welsh and Breton, with links into Gaelic [both varieties] and Manx. Welsh, Breton and Cornish form the sub-group of Byrothnic languages. So I guess the language purists would see a case for restoring the nation of Byrothnia[?]. Meanwhile, though, the 4-500 speakers of Cornish are to benefit from the spending of 600,000 pounds so as to' increase the use of the language in public life'. Which can’t be bad. I wonder if there is anyone left in Italy speaking Etruscan and who feels so miffed at Latin superseding it they can establish a case for a subvention. And I also wonder if this blog will now be picked up by Cornish and/or Etruscan trackers. God help me!
My thanks to the anonymous Galician reader who wrote to make some reasoned comments. I don’t happen to be convinced by all of them but this is not the point. My basic view of is exactly the same as I wrote about the Basque Country a few days ago – Good luck to those with ‘nationalist’ aspirations, provided only they accept current realities and do things democratically. Of course, if they want the rest of the world to accept that Galicia is a completely different legal entity from Spain, they probably have a long wait ahead of them - whether it’s called a pais, a nación, a nacionalidad or a realidad nacional. If they just want to feel different, then that’s available to them now. Just as it is to Asturias, Cantabria, etc., etc. What is impossible to accept is that simply being different means they’re not Spanish. Prussians and Bavarians are both German. Parisians and Corsicans are both French. And Ceutans and Melillans are as Spanish as Madrileños. Or so people never tire of telling me.
I thought I would return the interest of my Galician readers and invite them to give us a primer on nationalist politics here in Galicia/Galiza. As most of those who write to me clearly think I’m pig ignorant on the subject, there will surely be no shortage of takers. Especially as I’m suggesting they write in English, Spanish or Gallego/Galego. If the latter, I will translate for the benefit of those readers who are interested in the replies. Here’s a few questions to get us going:-
1. Apart from the BNG, what other nationalist parties are there here?
2. What percentage of the vote did each get in last year’s elections in the CA?
3. In each case, was this an increase or decrease on the previous elections?
4. What are the main policy differences – if any – between these parties on the issues of:-
a. Independence from Spain
b. Greater autonomy but as part of ‘plural Spain’
c. Description of /Galiza as a país, nación, nacionalidad, etc.
d. The Statute of Autonomy which is currently being negotiated with Madrid.
e. The importance of Gallego in public, e. g. 1. co- official or only official language? 2. The percentage of each to be used in schools?
5. The formation of a Galician football team to play in at least the European Cup and
possibly the World Cup [If any of them actually have a policy on this]
In the rest of Spain, the Gallegos have a reputation of being ‘close’ and unwilling to answer questions, except with another question. I do hope this turns out not to be the case here. Pero, vamos a ver.
Well, none of my Galician readers has rushed to answer my questions of yesterday. Just one pleasant but hard-to-understand message referring me to Wikipedia entries on Galicia. This, of course, is an encyclopaedia written by contributors and it will hardly surprise anyone to hear that 1. the version in Galician refers to as a ‘nation’, whereas 2. the version in English doesn’t. So, not much progress there. While we [or I at least] wait for more information, here’s what Wikipedia says [in English] about the leading Galician nationalist party:-
The Bloque Nacionalista Galego, is a minority nationalist political organisation, founded in 1982. Ideologically, the BNG defends the Galician language and the autonomy of the Parliament of Galicia. Structurally, the BNG consists of independents and federated political parties and constitutes a permanent electoral coalition. At one time, the BNG supported the independence of Galicia as a long-term goal, but after absorbing the regionalist Unidade Galega in 1990, it moved to a policy opposing Galician independence and supporting autonomy within Spain.
It was the second largest political group in the Galician Parliament after the 2001 elections, slightly ahead of the Spanish Socialist Party but in the 2005 elections it lost 4 seats and slipped to third place. It lost its one Euro-MP in the European Elections of 2004.
Although the vast majority of its members are so-called 'independents', the BNG does recognise a number of other groups within it:
Unión do Povo Galego: (The Galician People's Union), a communist party
Esquerda Nacionalista: (Nationalist Left), a social-democratic party
Unidade Galega: (Galician Unity), a social-democratic party
Colectivo Socialista:(Socialist Collective), a socialist party
Inzar: formed through the merger of the Galician branches of the Maoist Communist Movement (Movimiento Comunista) and the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League (Liga Comunista Revolucionaria)
Partido Nacionalista Galego-Partido Galesguista:(Galician Nationalist Party- Galeguist Party), a liberal democratic party
A somewhat eclectic group whose members possibly don't all agree with each other, never mind with me.
I suggested yesterday the constituent bits of the BNG might not all agree with each other. Today I read that Divergent internal sensitivities[!] of leftists and progressives within the BNG have opted for a change of direction in the nationalist organisation. They intend to bring to the autumn conference a new political strategy, to be driven by a new top team. Lummy! Looks like sparks.
Walking don’t to town this morning, the thought struck me – I wonder how many of the Galician nationalists who wrote to upbraid me still live at home. Quite a few I suspect. Quite ironic really. I mean, one accepts teenagers will have extreme views but perhaps there should be a law that no one who is over 20 and still living at home should be allowed to say anything about regional/national independence until he/she has demonstrated a capacity to achieve it for themselves. Not much to ask, I wouldn’t have thought.
I wonder whether the Galician nationalists would be prepared to take a leaf out of Prince’s book and call it The Region That Used To Be Called The Kingdom Of Galicia. Perhaps Trubecalkog in the English acronym. And something like Lareqsollekedegal in Spanish/Gallego. I imagine not.
It’s not only in Catalunia that Spanish is losing out to the local ‘co-official’ language. Here in Galicia – or in this part at least – nothing comes out of local government in anything but Gallego. This contrasts with only a few years ago when documents were in both languages. Nationalists tend to put economic considerations way down their list so I don’t suppose they care but I know this promotion of Gallego is off-putting for money-bringing British families who consider moving here with young children. Simply put, they don’t want their kids to have to learn two foreign languages, one of which is of no use to them outside Galicia. Would it really kill the local authorities to issue documents in both languages? Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a legal obligation to do so.
Happily for me, the Andalucia exhibition previously mentioned is travelling around the country so all the information is in Spanish. However, the glossy leaflet handed to you at the door is only in Gallego. And, in my view, utterly redundant since everyone can read the placards in Spanish. But it’s so easy to spend other peoples’ money. Especially on a ‘good cause’. Or when you want to ‘make a statement’.
Today’s papers carried reports of attacks yesterday on the president of the PP party by ‘young Catalan extremists’. Needless to say, they branded him a ‘fascist’ before roughing him up a bit. In the UK, where the only fascists have been a 1930s joke, this pejorative term carries no weight at all. I imagine much the same is true of the USA. But here in Spain, against the backcloth of a relatively recent fascist dictatorship, it’s naturally a heavyweight insult. Or, rather, it would be if it weren’t used by those on the left of the political spectrum for any shade of opinion even slightly to the right of them. In such a way is language devalued. Basically, it’s now a word used by juveniles to describe anyone who disagrees with them in any way. Especially ‘nationalists’, it would seem. So, fortunately, it won’t be long before it carries no weight here either.
One of our local papers reports today the recent university entrance exam in the subject of Gallego threw up some horrific errors. But, then, where there is an Academy changing accepted practice every year, this is hardly surprising. No, what really interested me was the comment that people had written not just in Gallego and Spanish but also in ‘Castrapo’. This turns out to be Gallego bastardised by Spanish and is, naturally, disdained by all true sons of Galiza, especially those with ambitions of independence. I now wonder whether there are any Castrapo nationalists that I can gratuitously offend. If so, they may offer a higher standard of insult to what I’ve been used to recently. At least, if they were partly in Spanish, I’d have a better chance of understanding them.
Researching the word ‘Castrapo’ yesterday, I came across a site which goes into some depth on the Galician language. This is www.umoncton.ca/soeler/galiza_pol.htm and it’s an interesting read, so long as you can get past the sort of accusation we’ve become familiar with in the last few weeks - Spain is still an imperial power; the nation of has been repressed and colonised for 400 years; Spain is still a dictatorship and the PP party is a fascist organisation; the Galicians are held hostage by the Spanish; assisted by useful idiots who speak bastardised Gallego [Castrapo], Spain is bent on destroying the ancient culture and language of Galicia; etc., etc. Two of the most noteworthy claims are that, set against the restoration of the independence of Galiza, ‘Economics are not important,’; and ‘Galiza has had a rich Celtic tradition for over 2,000 years’. I suspect the electorate would find the first contention hard to stomach and I really wonder about the accuracy of the latter. A little later in my research I came across a Celtic site which contained the following snippet - In the 1960s Galicia’s bid to join the Celtic League was rejected on the grounds it lacked a Celtic language. Today the most visible assertion of Celtic culture in Galicia is in the field of music, notably through the Galician Bagpipe, or Gaita Galega. There are some, I have to say, who suggest the whole Celtic thing was re-invented in the 19 century to give more weight to the incipient Galician nationalist movement. There certainly was, of course, a Celtic culture in Spain but it wasn’t confined to Galicia and there appears to be little trace of Celtic-origin words in any of the Iberian languages. Just as in English there are only twelve, I believe. No staying power, obviously.
Well, the people of Catalunia finally voted on their new Constitution yesterday. Or, rather, just under 50% of them did. Of these, 75% approved it, meaning it passes into law with the endorsement of around 38% of the electorate. This, of course, allows everyone involved to claim some sort of victory - even the far-left party who regarded the proposals as insufficiently generous to Catalunia and so recommended abstention. The rest of us are just glad the long-running saga is finally over. Though we now have to endure similar polemical processes in several other regions, all of which are vying with each other to see what creative phrase they can come up with containing something akin to ‘nation’. I suppose it keeps the politicians busy. And the ‘nationalists’ happy. More or less. But I’m not convinced it’s good for Spain.
In the Basque Country a baker’s dozen of ETA members has been arrested in connection with extortion of a ‘Revolution Tax’ from local businesspeople. ETA may be involved in a peace process and ‘committed’ to seeing it through to a permanent ceasefire but, as with the IRA, their criminal activities haven’t ceased. And, showing just how much he’s learned from the guide book given to him by Gerry Adams, the leader of the political arm of the terrorist organisation condemned the arrests as an ‘attack upon the peace process’ and demanded all ‘acts of aggression’ must cease. Needless to say, he is also seeking the internationalisation of the process, in the hope this will foster the image of the Basque Country as Spain’s Ireland. This, of course, is also the objective of the Galician ‘nationalists’. Hence – among other nonsenses - the specious stress on Galicia’s Celtic-ness.
Some Galician facts:-
Fewer people [63%] claim to routinely speak Galician these days. This is doubtless a reflection of the depopulation of the villages of inland
Galicia is being increasingly urbanised. Between 1987 and 2000, urban development grew 20%
Between 2006 and 2013, Galicia will receive 3.4m euros from EU funds, a drop of 7% over the previous 7 year period
Although 63% of the population say they speak Galician regularly, only a small minority have anything other than Spanish on their tombstones. The local Nationalist party [the BNG] fears this will give the wrong impression to future archaeologists and say something must be done about it. I’m not sure what.
Both Lenin and Trotsky [and Bismarck, I think] are credited with the aphorism that ‘Politics is concentrated economics’. Actually, they all stole it from Clausewitz. I quote it here because I think the issue of devolution is ultimately an economic and not a social, cultural or political one. As I say, I have no real idea as to whether current developments in Spain are for the best but what concerns me are 1. the actual/potential divisiveness to which it lends itself, and 2. the opportunity cost of it all.
To go back to the UK for a moment – there, with full Scottish devolution, the Labour party did what some observers think Zapatero is now doing in Spain; it made a major constitutional change for purely political reasons. In short, this was to entrench their position in Scotland and, thus, to give themselves a long-term political advantage in the UK as a whole. Reading the following comments only this morning, it’s easy to take the view that all this was very short-sighted and that it’s going to backfire on them. . . Devolution has created a serious constitutional problem for the UK. Like so many intractable problems, it has caught most politicians unawares, but it has been ticking away like an unexploded bomb for years. . . .The Scottish Parliament has become a byword for profligacy, incompetence and cronyism. The cumulative additional costs of devolution now exceed an astounding £1 billion. Few would claim it has added that much value.. . . .At present Scotland gets almost £5 for every £4 per head spent in England on public services. The Scottish Parliament has chosen to spend some of this extra money on providing universal free care for the elderly and on avoiding up-front university tuition fees. England enjoys no such benefits. English students pay higher [university] fees than their Scottish colleagues. Elderly people south of the Border have to pay for nursing care which is free in Scotland, and in some cases have been forced to sell the family home to do so. Is it any wonder that discontent and resentment are being generated? . . .Of the Scottish workforce, 23 per cent is employed in the public sector. Growth is sluggish and far too few new businesses are being created. Compare that with Ireland's tiger economy, where tax cuts have liberated enterprise and led to economic expansion and prosperity.
So, no I don’t think the UK is a good model at all. And it is this very divisiveness which I think is a risk for Spain now. Politics in Spain seems to me to have always been rather more ‘tribal’ than elsewhere and I doubt that the game of constitutional leap-frog which is now under way is going to lessen this. Indeed, some observers suggest that what Zapatero has done is to rip the lid off the post-Franco consensus that has allowed Spain to make so much progress over the last 20 years or so. In other words, the old rifts in Spanish society are opening up again. I don’t think one has to be a ‘fascist’ or catastrophist to share these concerns.
As for immediate economic effects - an enormous amount of political time, energy and creativity is going into these constitutional issues. Given the underlying problems currently being masked by Spain’s construction and credit-driven boom, it’s arguable that these could be better devoted to other things. In short, it may be legitimate – and even inevitable – to respond to demands for greater regional autonomy but this surely incurs a significant opportunity cost. In the longer run, the country as a whole may pay a high price for this, even though Catalunia may get to keep more of its own money.
In June’s Prospect magazine, the editor wrote that the UK is technically not a nation but a state formed out of the amalgamation of four countries some 250 years ago. Spain’s version of this happened almost 300 years earlier but, as we know only too well, arguments still rage about the status/description of her component parts. I even think I heard on a Galician channel today that the local nationalist party is demanding Galicia’s new constitution refer to the region as not only a nation but also an ex-kingdom. In contrast, a writer in one of the local papers yesterday asked what on earth was wrong with the word everyone used in everyday life – ‘country’. Perhaps he’s on to something; if all the 17 autonomous communities were now re-termed countries [just like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland] all this endless prattle would stop and people could devote their time and energy to something really serious. Like the future, for example.
A leading Galician politician has said there can be no reason why the region’s new constitution shouldn’t be as good as any other. Meaning that of Catalunia, I suppose. This piecemeal approach to reform rather contrasts with that in Germany, where the relationship between the central government and all the regions is currently being negotiated in the round. I can’t help feeling this is a less time-consuming and divisive approach.
The Irish language has been given full official status in the EU, which has naturally led to Welsh demands for equal treatment of their own tongue. In contrast, Catalan, Valencian, Basque and Galician have been accorded lower status as they’re regarded as official languages only in parts of Spain and not throughout the country. This, however, is not a form of logic which can be counted on to appeal to the respective ‘nationalists’ of each of these regions.
A young woman fired from her job here in Pontevedra has taken the company to court, claiming she was sacked merely for insisting on talking to clients in Galician. This, of course, is inevitable when legal steps are taken to protect or promote a race, language or whatever. The inevitable consequence is that the lazy and the incompetent can then always argue their inalienable rights have been infringed. I guess we’ll see a lot more of this, as the country’s ‘nationalists’ all now have quite a lot of wind in their sails.
I mentioned yesterday that books in Galician didn’t seem to be selling like hotcakes during this week’s book fair in Pontevedra. One possible reason for this is that reading is a very middle class habit and – in contrast to Catalan and Basque – Galician is not a middle class language. To be frank, the better off here appear to regard it as the language of the peasantry. And, of course, of fervent young ‘nationalists’. Some of whom might well now send me their heartfelt views on my intelligence.
El Mundo today had a useful list of all the disputes currently taking place between Spain’s muscle-flexing regions. Most seriously, this includes a battle for water resources but, down at the other end, there’s the inclusion by Andalucia in its draft new Constitution of a reference to flamenco as one of its ‘exclusive competencies’. In between these extremes are the language-related fights picked by the Galician ‘nationalist’ party with its neighbours in Asturias, Castile y León and Estremadura. When you read this, you could be forgiven for thinking that, as Spain drives relentlessly forward economically, it is going slowly backwards politically. I don’t know about France, Germany and the USA but, in the UK at least, it’s impossible to imagine these sorts of disputes between counties. And very difficult, even, to imagine them between the constituent countries of England, Scotland and Wales. The question is, will things get better or worse when Spain’s current economic boom comes to an end? Depending, of course, on how you define ‘better’ and ‘worse’.
In its latest flight of fancy, the Galician nationalist party [the BNG] has demanded the Preamble to the region’s new constitution contains 5 or 6 references to Galicia as a nation. Its senior partner in local government – the socialist party – seems content to refer to the region as ‘The nation of Breogan’. He was a mythical Celtic king and so all this is even worse than the English wanting a constitution defining England as ‘The nation of Boudicca’. At least she actually lived in the place. And I suppose the Scots would want a reference to Robert the Bruce. And the Welsh to Llewellyn. . . Laughable. Or it would be if the politicians didn’t have things far more serious to deal with. Such as the fact Galicia is ageing far more quickly [and expensively] than anywhere else in Spain while her relative economic position is deteriorating. Fiddling while Rome burns.
The Galician ‘nationalist’ party – a minority partner in the local government despite losing votes at the last election – is insisting the region’s ‘national anthem’ be sung at all official events. At the same time, they’ve done a deal with the right-of-centre opposition party around the reference to ‘nation’ in the region’s new Constitution. This, of course, has irritated their partners in government, who’ve learned yet again that politics makes strange bedfellows. And thus does the nationalist tail wag the socialist dog.
Regular readers will have picked up that I’m not a great fan of Spain’s ‘nationalist’ parties. So it’s hardly surprising I was drawn to these two comments in a Prospect article on resurgent English nationalism:-
The two vital elements that sustain national politics are self-righteousness and a sense of grievance.
The ingredients of a nationalist platform are:- a sense of injustice, a feeling of powerlessness, a mood of exploitation and the occasion for righteous anger.
I read this comment today – Spain has a lop-sided constitution with big powers for the Basque Country, more modest devolution for Catalunia and relatively little for Castile. This asymmetry is tolerated in part because the most devolved areas are the richest parts of Spain and, thus, paymasters of the rest. Conspicuous by its absence from this short list is Galicia, even though it also has a privileged position. This is because it’s one of the poorest parts of Spain and, as I have said, represents much less of a go-it-alone threat to the rest of the country. The Galician ‘nationalists’ who write to upbraid/insult me find this comment hard to accept. But they would, wouldn’t they?
Once you’re infected with the illusion your region really is a nation, there’s naturally no stopping you. The Galician ‘nationalist’ party is again seeking – this time under the aegis of the new constitution for the region – the right to set up Galician embassies in real countries such as Portugal. These would then negotiate ‘international treaties’, presumably in Gallego. Even bigger delusions of grandeur.
In modern Spain, it’s hard to remain unaware of the aspirations of the three ‘nationalist’ regions of Catalunia, Pais Vasco and Galicia . Especially if, like me, you live in one. I’ve been thinking about this and have decided that the example is worth following. So, if you click on the link on the right entitled The Kingdom of Danelaw, this will take you to some breaking news of international importance. Or just click here.
My friend Fernando has written to say my Danelaw spoof is a bit unfair on the issue of language. This is rather ironic as I’m a ardent supporter of those who want to preserve and extend their language. I’ve learned, in my time, 2 or 3 of the world’s less useful languages and I like to believe that, if I was as Welsh as my full name suggests, I’d be fluent in both English and Welsh. So I have no problem with the Catalans, Basques or Galicians doing what they can to protect and further their respective languages. What I do object to, though, is this being done in a doctrinaire way at the expense of Spanish. When I first came to only 5 years ago, everything was in both Gallego and in Spanish. Now it’s only the former and I’m not comfortable with this. Nor, I suspect, are many Galicians.
My other defence is that my tilt at language aspects of ‘nationalism’ stems from a very British disregard for august language Academies, whether they be French, Spanish or Galician. We just find them funny. A year or two ago, the Galician Academy announced that, henceforth, the Galician word for ‘Thanks’ would be ‘Graza’. Since then, I’ve heard this word only once and this was from the mouth of a character in a Galician TV soap opera, Pratos Combinados. All of which gives me the opportunity to say I had dinner with Maria Castro the other week. Not that this will mean much to most of you.
Language Promotion: Yes, I agree that attitudes in the 3 Spanish ‘nationalist’ regions are a reaction to oppression under Franco. But, even if understandable, I feel it’s a great shame things are now being taken to the opposite extreme. Denying the existence of Spanish is not the way to go. The ‘co-official’ languages surely both have their place in each of the regions. Especially for those who want to communicate with the rest of the world. Or even – in the case of Galicia - with tourists who don’t come from, say, Ourense or Lugo. Everyone speaking only Gallego in Galicia would be economic madness for a poor region. And not too clever from a cultural point of view either.
The Galician government has announced it will shortly inaugurate schools in which all lessons are in Gallego, compared with 40% at the moment. This, I think we can safely say, is the Catalunian model. And one which will do little for the employment prospects of the pupils. Not that this would be a concern of doctrinaire nationalists.
Pressure for independence from Spain comes from within the regions, most particularly from Catalunia and the Basque Country. In the case of the UK, such pressure has traditionally been rather muted in both Scotland and Wales. Indeed, they’ve each got their own parliament/assembly and greater devolved powers only very recently. But they’re now beginning to use these to effect different policies from England. The Scots in particular have decided to give their citizens much wider and less expensive health care and tertiary education. Trouble is, the costs of all this are heavily subsidised by the English. This is beginning to stick in the English craw – especially since Scottish MP’s at Westminster vote on purely English matters – and there’s growing pressure to put an end to this largesse. Who knows, perhaps the small band of Scottish Nationalists may one day achieve their goal of independence. But not because the majority of Scots demand it [they don’t] but because the tight-fisted English thrust it on them. This, of course, is a nightmare scenario for the ambitious, thrusting Scots [Blair, Brown, Reid, Darling, etc.] who currently dominate British politics. And it at least partly explains why the Prime-Minister-in-waiting, Mr Brown, has been spouting about ‘Britishness’ for some time now. He doesn’t want to be thrown out at the next general election just because he’s a ‘bloody Scot”.
I very much doubt independence would be welcome to the vast majority of Scots, who’d then have to be more heavily taxed. I’ve previously compared this situation with that of Galicia . This drives the Galician independistas into paroxysms of rage, as nothing will convince them won’t become a mighty and prosperous nation once it’s liberated from the yoke of Spanish colonial oppression. So I’m happy to mention it again and now await the wave of insults from ‘independent’ adolescents sitting at their computers in a bedroom in their parents’ house.
A reader has asked whether ‘nationalists’ imagine that being small but independent will bring them mountains of cash from, say, the EU. Well, yes, the Galician nationalist party, the BNG, was the only party here to oppose the EU Constitution - on the grounds that it wasn’t socialist enough.
The good news for Spain this week is that at least one of its 17 regions – Andalucia – is proving capable of revising its constitution on the basis of all-party support, both local and national. Here in Galicia, though, the attitude ahead of our own negotiation appears to be that nothing less than what was granted to Catalunia will be acceptable. But then we have a ‘nationalist’ party in the governing coalition, wagging the tail of the socialist dog.
In Brussels this week, a senior member of the Galician ‘nationalist’ party [the BNG] said he was proud to be the first person to speak Gallego in an EU forum, adding this would surely enrich Europe. Given the cost of 24 simultaneous translations, ‘impoverish’ would have been a more accurate word. Possibly 25, given that the Spanish representative might have needed one as well.
Today’s Faro de Vigo had a special section on the 2,000 blogs written from/about Galicia. From this I learned that the English contraction of ‘web log’ to ‘blog’ has now been extended in Spanglish to ‘blogillo’. I also learned that the writer is apparently unaware of my blog. Which was a bit miffing. Playing an ironic victim card, I put it down to Galician nationalism.
Displaying a grasp of reality that you’d expect, the Galician Nationalist Party [the BNG] has proposed moves to the same time as the Canary Islands and Portugal. In terms solely of longitude, this makes excellent sense. But, as a political policy, it doesn’t have a prayer. For one thing, with only one exception the whole of Spain really should be on the same time as the UK. But since this exception is Catalunia, Madrid is never going to permit any tinkering with time zones.
The proposal from the Galician nationalist party [the BNG] to change the clock has certainly garnered them many column inches in both the local and national press. But it’s been greeted with almost universal derision even here in Galicia, where they have nothing like the support of their brethren in Catalunia and the Basque Country.
The most recent comment I’ve read on the nationalists’ proposal to move the Galician clock back an hour was the surprising suggestion this was not enough. Much better, the local wag said, to go back 2,000 years and get hold of a few Romans who could build a highway that wouldn’t collapse after only a decade or so.
The regional government [the Xunta] has decreed all teachers in must present their plan for 2007 in Gallego or risk suspension. I know quite a lot of teachers here and they are all, without exception, against this development, even those who speak Gallego at home. And the measure will not have popular support in the region as a whole. But this is what happens when you bring a nationalist [i. e. regionalist] party into a coalition in order to consolidate power. The reality is they have no other policies beyond language extension. And they have to be bought off somehow.
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