Nationalities in Spain

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Historically, the modern country of Spain was formed by the accretion of several independent Iberian realms through dynastic inheritance, conquest and the will of the local elites. These realms had their own personalities and borders. Portugal, an independent country since the 12th century, was the only of the Iberian realms not to join the Spanish kingdom.

Since the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, there has been a process of uniformization by the central authorities. Simultaneously, this uniformization has been repelled by some of the local elites that formed their own national consciences based on traditional historical, linguistical and cultural traits.

The dynamics between centralization and decentralization is one of the forces in the history of the latest centuries. Since the beginning of the transition to democracy in Spain after the Francisco Franco dictatorship there have been many movements towards more autonomy in certain regions of the country in order to achieve full independence in some cases, to get their own autonomous community in others.

It is a fact that it does not exist something so straightforward as just one Spanish nationality for the whole country nowadays. Many Spanish citizens feel no conflict in having several national identities at the same time.
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 states the following intentionally ambiguous sentence that lies in the root of the matter:

"The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed and the solidarity among them all."

This article intends to describe the nationalist and regionalist parties' claims in Spain and it is divided between them, independently of their self-denomination, clearly distinguishable by their goals.
The structure of the article is also determined by social support and thoughts of the claims, so that even if there are political parties claiming independence from Spain for Castile, Cantabria, Aragon, Valencia, Andalusia or Murcia they hardly get any vote and thus do not represent the popular identitary and national sentiment (percentages of nationalist and regionalist votes are given in parentheses according to figures of the elections held at municipality level in May 2003).
Note that the only two autonomous communities not mentioned in this article are Madrid (capital of the State, traditionally part of Castilla-la Nueva - New Castile in english -, most of it population identifies itself primarily just with Spain) and La Rioja (traditionally part of Castile, there are little supported cultural movements to bring it nearer to the Basque Country, see Laminiturri).

Note that part of the politicians were reluctant or opposed in decentralization at the beginning of the transition, but most political forces have reached power in some region and now there is no major question about the decentralization but on its limits and future evolution.

This would be roughly the political configuration of the Iberian Peninsula if joining many of the thoughts of nationalist and regionalist parties.
A Spanish State would be composed by the traditional regions or nations of Castile (Burgos, Soria, Palencia, Valladolid, Segovia, Avila, Madrid, La Rioja, Cantabria, Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Albacete, Guadalajara, Caceres, Badajoz, Murcia), Leon (Leon, Zamora, Salamanca, Asturias), Aragon (Huesca, Zaragoza, Teruel) and Andalusia (Huelva, Jaen, Malaga, Granada, Cadiz, Sevilla, Cordoba, Almeria), while 4 apart independent European states would be the Basque Country (Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Alava, Navarre), the Catalan Countries (Barcelona, Lleida, Girona, Tarragona, Castellon, Valencia, Alicante, Baleares), Galicia (A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, Pontevedra), and naturally Portugal.
Identity ambiguous regions and provinces (written in italics) have been quite randomly assigned.
This map is particularly similar to those showing Iberian kingdoms' frontiers in the Reconquista in IX - XII centuries [1][2]. That can be attributed to the fact that the following period of political and cultural unification never ended or achieved great success according to nationalist and regionalist claims.

[edit] Nationalism

Nationalist movements in Spain find an undeniable incompatibility between the Spanish nationality and their own nationalities.

[edit] Basque Country

• (45.33% PNV+EA+Aralar^[1])

Basque nationalism runs the range from full independence to further devolution to the Basque government.
For instance, the PNV wins regularly any election at either the town, region or Spanish levels in the Basque Country autonomous community, but the fact that it achieves a mere plurality and that electors of PNV do not unanimously support (full) independence, counterts the belief that independence is a generally accepted idea by Basque population.

According to recent studies (see Euskobarómetro [3], [4]) , a plurality (38%) of the population in the Basque Country autonomous community would vote YES, 31% NO, 13% not voting in a hypothetic independence referendum, and 19% did not answer (Voter turnout would be 68-69%, when taking that figure as the whole 100%, 55% of the voters would answer YES and 45% NO). Different results appear when the options are independence, further devolution or the current status. The option for a restoration of centralization is barely recorded.

The nationalists consider Navarre and the French Basque Country as part of the same nation, the Basque Country. In the current Basque Statute of Autonomy it is stated that Navarre has the legal right to belong to the autonomous community of the Basque Country, inside Spain.

The Basque Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.

The current President of the Basque Government proposed in 2003 a plan for changing the current status of the Basque Country as an autonomous community to a "status of free association" (see Associated State and Free State). It was approved by the majority (39 votes against 35) of the Basque Parliament, but the Spanish Congress of Deputies rejected it in 2005 (313 NO, 29 YES, 2 not voting) and it could not reach its goal.
The President of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has stated that he will support any reform to the Statute of Autonomy which is supported by 2/3 of the Basque Parliament (a verbal condition not legally written anywhere, for the only condition needed for an statute to be approve is the half of the total plus one votes in the Basque Parliament), which given the distribution of seats means that if the Basque Socialist Party approves of the reformed text, then the PSOE will support it at the Spanish level.

[edit] Catalonia

• (45.8% CIU+ERC in 2006 catalan elections)

Historically Catalan nationalism has supported a federalization that respects a Catalan nation within the Spanish state. Although most nationalist parties in Catalonia do not openly claim an independent state (ERC and the Independence Party do), it is regarded as the wish of a great part of the population, and in fact it was, during a short period in the Spanish Civil War.

The nationalist usually consider the Catalan-speaking regions (Catalonia, Land of Valencia, Balearic Islands, the independent state of Andorra, Roussillion and some adjacent strips) as part of the same nation, the Catalan Countries.

The inhabitants of the Aran Valley keep their own dialect of the Gascon language besides Catalan and Spanish.

Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.

In 2005 a draft of a new Statute of Autonomy, the 88.9% of the Catalan Parliament declared Catalonia a nation, but finally it was changed back to nationality (due to political pressure from both the Spanish Government and Opposition) and approved in a controversial referendum. However, this statute mentions the word "nation", referring to Catalonia, in its preamble (without legal value) [5].

[edit] Galicia

• (19.41% Bloque Nacionalista Galego)

Since 2005 Galicia is ruled by a coalition government between the PSdeG-PSOE and the nationalist BNG. Unlike in other Spanish regions, the Galician Partido Popular, the major party, includes "galicianism" (regionalism) as one of its ideological principles.

The Bloque Nacionalista Galego is itself a coalition of parties, neither of which endorses independence. Other nationalist parties stand for further devolution or outright independence but they only have representatives in local councils.

See Galician nationalism, Bloque Nacionalista Galego, Nós-Unidade Popular (Us-People Unity), Primeira Linha (First Line) and Celtic Nations.

Its present Statute of Autonomy (1981) defines this region as a nationality. The Galician Government is drafting a new Statute of Autonomy where Galicia will most probably be defined as a nation.

[edit] Canary Islands

• (30.76% CC)

Only in recent times a nationalism movement has been developed here. Its insularity requires several specific treatments. Even the Franco government conceded several privileges to the islands to compensate for their remoteness.

Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.

The Canarian Government is drafting a new Statue of Autonomy where the Canary Islands will be defined as a nation. However it must be noted that this nationalism is mild in its formulation, thus, independence is not even in the nationalist agenda. Historically, the Canarian Coalition can be deemed more as a lobby in order to favour Canarian interests within Spain rather than a nationalist movement like the ones formulated in other areas.

[edit] Regionalism

In most of these following regions people do not find conflictive the Spanish nationality and their own claimed national or regional identity.
There are two main political streams in regionalism: Nationalism-Regionalism, that supports the definition of the region as a nationality or nation but usually within Spain, and "Regionalism", that originally supported the creation of an autonomous community for its region, and now acts only as a promoter of its region but within Spain and respecting the current status of autonomous community, and these "regionalist" parties are commonly associated with PP in its region (or acting as its substitute or branch, as in Navarre UPN), see Federation of Regionalist Parties and Regionalist Party of Cantabria.

[edit] Castile

• (Nationalism-Regionalism: Castile-Leon 0.88% + Castile La Mancha 0.15% TC)

Regionalists in Castile (such as Tierra Comunera) want to unify the traditional provinces of the kernel of the old Kingdom of Castile (Old Castile and New Castile), and that would include the modern communities of Castile-Leon, Cantabria, La Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Madrid, and perhaps even provinces of Valencia, Alicante and Murcia (since Tierra Comunera makes no mention of those once Castilian possessions in its ideological bases, but it does about the Basque Country, Andalusia and Canary Islands being distinct nations from Castile).
In the map shown above it is visible that Castilla has the so many times told shape of a wedge, the way the Castilian language spread to other parts of the peninsula (from Cantabria and La Rioja).

See Castilian nationalism.

[edit] Aragon

Aragonese nationalist banner

• (Nationalism-Regionalism: 12.46% CHA; "Regionalism": 12.03% PAR)

Traditionally it was an independent kingdom that forged Spain in its fusion with the Kingdom of Castile.
But by no means they wish an independent state, but to be fully recognized as a distinct and important region in Spain with its own (not yet officially) recognized Aragonese language.

See Chunta Aragonesista.

Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.

[edit] Andalusia

• (Nationalism-Regionalism: 8.53% PA)

Andalusia got its first Statute of Autonomy from the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, and so it is considered an historical community in Spain.
They have a peculiar culture, way of being and behaving of their own, that makes the stereotype of the Spanish people as seen by many foreigners.
They speak a very different dialect of Spanish, in its extreme form sometimes even difficult to understand by non Andalusians because of its hard accent (mainly in phonetics, rather than in grammar). This language is considered an Andalusian dialect of Spanish or as a full Andalusian language of its own by some people.

See Andalusian nationalism.

Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.

The Andalusian Government is drafting a new Statute of Autonomy where Andalusia will be defined as following: "the national reality of Andalusia is that of a nationality".

[edit] Asturias

The nationalist banner used by Andecha Astur

• (Regionalism: 1.45% PAS, 2.8% URAS; Nationalism: 0.7% Andecha Astur)

Regionalist and nationalist parties (e.g. Andecha Astur) do not get much support from population, but they have clearly an identity.
A wish for independence is stated sometimes by those parties, but as the independent and pre-spanish Kingdom of Asturias was the initial core of the Reconquista, most of the people do not feel that there is any incompatibility in being Asturian and Spanish. Moreover, Asturian nationalist and regionalist claims are divided among independence, regionalism itself, conforming an autonomous community of Leon.

Their sign of identity is the Asturian Language, regarded by some as a dialect of the Astur-Leonese.

[edit] León

• (Castile-León 3.67%: León 13.45%, Zamora 5.74%, Salamanca 3.44% UPL+ZU+UPS)

Regionalists of León want to obtain an autonomous community including the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, and Asturias eventually joining them, the territories of the former Kingdom of León. They reject their present unification with Old Castile.

Their sign of identity is the Leonese language, that brings them near their Asturian neighbours.

The western territory of El Bierzo, and its capital Ponferrada, is linked to their Galician neighbours, and there is a sentiment for a union with Galicia specially among the speakers of the local Galician dialect^{[citation needed]}.

See Leonese People's Union and País LLïonés.

[edit] Identity ambiguous regions in Spain

The following regions have belonged to different kingdoms, realms, states or regions for a time, and their population regularly consider themselves differently mostly depending on the part of the region.
Some of these want to be identified with their own regional identity (such as Navarre, Cantabria or Valencia), but in fact they are the outcome of different cultural and linguistical adjacent streams.
For instance, people in the South of Navarra have never felt Basque, and if some of them are thinking that way nowadays, it is because of cultural-political influence or inmigration from adjacent Basque areas. The same goes for the people in the Spanish monolingual areas in Valencia (that have never felt Catalan in any way), and people in eastern or southern parts of Cantabria (which will never feel to be related to Astur-Leonese people).
So, generally speaking, this regions are constantly trying to forge its unitary identity (through "regionalist parties"), but in fact they are composed of opposing identities with more or less well established inner frontiers. Although mutual influence on both sides of those imaginary borders is common and may eventually lead to a common identity, it is highly unlikely to happen in regions like Navarre (where the vast majority of its northern population does not even want to be Spanish, but they only represent actually a minority when taking into account the whole population of Navarre). In Valencia it seems that their opposition to both Catalan and Castilian influences has managed to create a unique, distinct (and controversial) identity.

This map shows in black the identity ambiguous regions of the Iberian Peninsula: 1 Navarre, 2 Valencia, 3 Balearic Islands, 4 Cantabria, 5 Extremadura, 6 Murcia.

[edit] Navarre

• ("Regionalism": 33.18% UPN; Basque nationalism: 13.06% Aralar+EA+PNV+Batzarre^[2])

Its people may feel to be either Basque or Spanish, and their culture is more akin to either Aragon or Castilla in the southern and eastern parts, but in the northern half lies the original homeland of the Basque people, where Basque language is still spoken and is better preserved than in western and southern parts of the autonomous community of the Basque Country.

Distribution of Basque speaking people in Navarre.

As stated by the Basque Statute of Autonomy, if approved by the Navarrese Parliament and popular referendum by majority, Navarre can join the autonomous community of the Basque Country at any time when desired by its government and population, no further actions are required. The Navarrese Statute of Autonomy does not make any mention of this matter.

According to the Ley Foral del Vascuence ("Foral Law regarding Basque Language") of the Navarrese Parliament is divided in three linguistical areas (Basque speaking area, Bilingual area and Spanish speaking area). See map.

See Nafarroa Bai and Navarrese People's Union.

[edit] Valencia

• (Nationalism: 5.69% BNV+EV+ERPV; "Regionalism": 3.54% UV)

Valencian, a dialect of Catalan, is spoken in most of the territory of the Valencian autonomous community, however the nationalist sentiment is not widespread and most of the population consider themselves as much Valencian as Spanish.
The nationalist sentiment is slighty higher in Castellon compared to the other provinces (electoral results show that just about 6.96% of the votes in Castellon are nationalist, and slightly higher than the provinces of Valencia with 5.75% and Alicante with 5.15%).
Notwithstanding, their electoral stronghold where they get overall best results is an area split in two provinces: the southernmost end of the Valencia province and the northernmost end of the Alicante one. The fact that this area is split in two provinces reduces relative percentages in both provinces and thus the slight prevalence of the Castellón figures.

It's in the local elections that the nationalists obtain their best results, thus they hold several town councils and significant representation -mostly in the areas mentioned above. Reversely, it is in the general elections to the Spanish Parliament where they score worse (approx. 2% of the votes). In the regional elections to the Autonomous Parliament, the main nationalist party BNV gets usually around 4% of the votes, not having achieved so far the 5% threshold which grants representation in the regional Parliament.

There are territories in the Valencian autonomous community which are Spanish-speaking only areas, where Valencian was never spoken (roughly the inner 1/3 of the territory) or was historically sparsely spoken and finally disappeared (the southermost part of the autonomous community, around the city of Orihuela). These territories amount approximately 25% of the whole autonomous community. Since Valencian nationalism is primarily built around the Valencian language, this political option is virtually non existent at all in these areas.

In contrast to Unió Valenciana, BNV and its forebears favour cooperation and ties with the other Catalan speaking territories and and greater autonomy -if not independence itself- from Spain.
Esquerra Valenciana is a party "of national, republican and transforming left of the Valencian Country; that fights for the political sovereignty and defends the free confederation of this territory with Catalonia and the Balearic Islands". It hasn't achieved so far electoral representation of any kind.

See Politics of Valencia, Valencian Left and Valencian Nationalist Bloc.

Its Statute of Autonomy defines this region as a nationality.

[edit] Balearic Islands

• ("Catalan" nationalism: 8.25% PSM - Entesa Nacionalista)

They also speak some dialects of Catalan (mallorquí, menorquí, eivissenc, formenterer), but they sympathize with Catalonian nationalistic claims more often than Valencian people do.
In fact, they officially call their language Catalan in the Statute of Autonomy (while in Valencia they call it Valencian):

[edit] Cantabria

• ("Regionalism": 19.32% PRC; Regionalism: 2.39% UC; Nationalism: 0.33% CNC)

This region is a traditional part of the Kingdom of Castilla, but there is some Leonese and Asturian influence in their language and culture.

See Cantabrian Nationalist Council and Cantabrian Regionalist Party.

Note that the Eastern coast (Castro Urdiales, Laredo) is a residential area for Basques of Biscay.

[edit] Extremadura

• ("Regionalism": 1.6% EU)

This region was conquered by the Kingdom of Castile, but repopulated by many Leonese people, and their dialect (castúo) is thought to be a variety of the Leonese language.

In the South they speak something related to the Andalusian dialect or accent of Spanish.
See Extremaduran language.

There are some parts where Portuguese is also spoken near Olivenza, over which the Portuguese Republic holds a claim.

Regionalist movements also exist here.

[edit] Murcia

• (>0%)

This mediterranean region has belonged to several taifa kingdoms of Al-Andalus, Aragon and Castilla, therefore it shares many similarities with Andalusia, Valencia (a dialect of Valencian-Catalan is spoken in El Carxe) and Castile-La Mancha.

There have been and there are some regionalist movements too. Their goal is to restore the traditional region of Murcia (including Albacete and maybe Almería, and creating the province of Cartagena).

The haven of Cartagena declared itself an independent canton in 1868.

See Murcian Spanish.

[edit] Ceuta and Melilla

There are two identities in these African cities. The Spanish-speaking Christians feel similar to Andalusians. The bilingual Muslims speak Arabic or Berber besides Spanish and have familiar, commercial and cultural relations with neighbour Morocco. The Moroccan government explicitly claims the cities as their own, but the Muslims acknowledge the benefits of a European developed democratic country.

Another proposal of the cultural-linguistical distribution of the Iberian Peninsula, giving less importance to Castile, and including modified Murcia and Valencia.
These maps only show that the current configuration of the territoriality of the autonomous communities in Spain is probably the best one that could have ever been reached, because most people from Cantabria, Navarra, Extremadura and Valencia will never accept a partition of their territories among adjacent regions just because of cultural-linguistical reasons.

[edit] Identity ambiguous provinces in Spain

[edit] Alava

It is a province of the Basque Country.
It has cultural traits with Castile and La Rioja.
The now disappeared political party Unidad Alavesa supported for a time a secession from the Basque Country to form a single-province autonomous community, but that drove them to not getting any representation in the Basque Parliament and dissolution, with many of their members fleeing to PP.

The Condado de Treviño is a Burgos enclave in Alava. Basque nationalists and part of the population want it to become part of Alava.

[edit] Albacete

It is a province of Castile La Mancha.
It belonged to Murcia before.

[edit] Almería

It is a province of Andalusia.
At the beginning of the democracy there was some polemics about whether they should belong to Andalusia or Murcia, because of cultural resemblances.

[edit] Salamanca

It is a province of Castile-Leon.
Leonese regionalist movement claims it as part of an autonomous community of Leon, but Salamanca has many similarities with purely Castile tradition and Extremadura too.

[edit] Conflicts with "nationality" and "nation" and related controversy in Spain

This map shows the regions in whose Statutes of Autonomy it is stated that they are nationalities.
The rest of the autonomous communities (Asturias, Cantabria, Castile y Leon, La Rioja, Navarre, Madrid, Extremadura, Castile La Mancha, Murcia and Balearic Islands) are regions then.
Ironically, Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia were part of the same state-kingdom under the Crown of Aragon before the Spanish unification.

• Those two terms do not mean the same at all, but they are used indistinctively by nationalist parties when justifying their political plans within the Spanish Constitution (nationality is regarded as an euphemism of nation).

• The PSOE government under José Luis Zapatero has promoted the concept of Spain as a "Nation of nations"^[3] to integrate nationalist claims within the Spanish state, despite of the ambiguous statement in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. It is non-constitutional for a region or nationality to declare itself a nation while inside the Spanish Nation.

• Apparently, it is stated that a "region" of Spain can be either a nationality or a "plain" region, composing then Spain of nationalities (Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Andalusia, Aragon, Valencia and Canary Islands) and regions (the rest of Spain), but this is not explicitly specified anywhere in the constitution.

• The Spanish Constitution of 1978 makes Spain to be a decentralized state, but to work almost as a federation of states in fact.

• Even if an autonomous community declares itself a nationality (and it does have the constitutional right to do it) that does not mean actually anything radically different from a region (since the degree of autonomy is determined by historical regionality, i.e. whether they got a Statute of Autonomy during the Second Republic or not, and the will of the population). In the 1980s, the statutes of the "historic" communities were approved in a "fast track" before those of the rest of regions.

• The Spanish Government does not recognize the right of self-determination of its hypotetical underlying nationalities or nations, and will not respect the outcome of an eventual regional referendum regarding the subject of autodetermination or independence. However the Basque Parliament voted for recognizing this right on its region.

• The term nationality refers only to the region, and not to its citizens. That is, a region can be a nationality, but that does not imply that their citizens (also) have the nationality of that region, but only Spanish nationality. There is only a Spanish citizenship officially recognized.

• Nationalities and hypotetical nations in Spain are not based on ethnic criteria but on historical, linguistical and cultural facts which any person in those regions can assume and get identified with, regardless of his background origin, family homeland or ancestors belonging to different nationalities.

• Modern nationalism movements in Spain (such as Basque nationalism, Catalan nationalism, Galician nationalism, Canarian nationalism, etc.) do not regard their "nations" as superior or better in any sense than any other one (although the founder of the Basque nationalism thought so), but just as distinct and independent nations from the Spanish one.

[edit] The "Core of Spain" and "Fear of Disintegration"

Despite nationalistic claims in different parts of today's Spanish State, political analysts generally judge that any actual disintegration of the State as very unlikely^{[citation needed]}.
Even if the Basque Country, Catalonia or Galicia got an independent state, the remaining population in the rest of Spain would keep considering themselves mainly Spaniards, along with sizeable population within the Basque Country, Catalonia or Galicia themselves.

[edit] See also

• Autonomous communities of Spain
• Provinces of Spain
• Historical regions in Spain
• Autonomist and secessionist movements in Spain
• The nationality debate in Spain
• Identities in Spain
• Coconstitutionalism
• Basque people
• Catalan people
• Galician people
• Andalusian people
• Castile and León, Aragón and Navarre were independent states
• Iberian languages
• Fueros
• Disintegration of Yugoslavia
• Nacionalidad Histórica (Spanish)
• Europa de los Pueblos (Spanish)

[edit] External links

• Pais Llïonés (Spanish)
• Ibarretxe Plan (Spanish - Multilingual)
• Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country (1979) (Spanish)
• Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (1979) (Spanish)
• Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (2006) (Spanish)
• Statue of Autonomy of Galicia (1981) (Spanish)
• Draft of the new Statute of Autonomy of Galicia (Galician)
• Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia (1981) (Spanish)
• Draft of the new Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia
• Statute of Autonomy of Canarias (1982) (Spanish)
• Statute of Autonomy of Aragon (1982) (Spanish)
• Statute of Autonomy of Valencia (1982) (Spanish)
• Statute of Autonomy of Valencia (2006) (Spanish)
• Andalusia as a nation (Spanish)
• Tierra Comunera
• Detailed linguistic map of the Iberian Peninsula

[edit] References

1. ^ In those elections the leftist nationalist-independentist party of Batasuna had been declared illegal and could not be voted. In past municipality elections (June 1999) it represented a 19.63% of total votes (then renamed as Euskal Herritarrok). In 2003 elections most of its votes went to invalid (spoilt) votes (10.04% against just 0.85% in 1999), followed by votes to PNV-EA (43.84% against 34.16% in 1999) and a minimal part to Aralar (1.49%). So a percentage of 10.04% should probably be added to the nationalist figure of 45.33%, making a total of 55.37%
2. ^ In that year's elections, Batasuna was illegal. The party asked to vote void. The void (spoilt) votes in Navarre were 5.79% (against 1.44% in 1999). Batasuna (then renamed as Euskal Herritarrok) got 14.94% of the total votes in 1999, making a total of 19.61% Basque nationalist votes (EH + EA + PNV) in 1999, almost the same in 2003 when adding the 5.79% null votes to the 13.06%: 18.85%.
3. ^ "Montilla asegura que España es una 'nación de naciones' y la reforma constitucional debe recoger la 'singularidad'", Europa Press, August 8, 2004. However compare José Bono: "más como nación de ciudadanos iguales en derechos y obligaciones que como nación de naciones o Estado de pueblos", Ministry of Defence, November 8, 2005.

[edit] Further reading

Amersfoort, Hans Van & Jan Mansvelt Beck 2000 'Institutional Plurality, a way out of the Basque conflict?', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 26. no. 3, pp. 449-467

Conversi, Daniele 'Autonomous Communities and the ethnic settlement in Spain', in Yash Ghai (ed.) Autonomy and Ethnicity. Negotiating Competing Claims in Multi-Ethnic States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 122-144 [ISBN 0521786428 paperback]

Flynn, M. K. 2004 'Between autonony and federalism: Spain', in Ulrich Schneckener and Stefan Wolf (eds) Managing and Settling Ethnic Conflicts. London: Hurst

Heywood, Paul. The Government and Politics of Spain. New York St. Martin's Press, 1996 (see in particular ch. 2)

Keating, Michael. 'The minority nations of Spain and European integration: A new framework for autonomy?', Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, vol. 1, n. 1, March 2000, pp. 29-42

Lecours, André 2001 'Regionalism, cultural diversity and the state in Spain', Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, vo. 22, no. 3, pp. 210-226

Magone, Jose' M. 2004 Contemporary Spanish Politics. London: Routledge, 1997

Mar-Molinero, Clare. 'The Iberian peninsula: Conflicting linguistic nationalisms', in Barbour, Stephen and Cathie Carmichael (eds) Language and Nationalism in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000

Moreno, Luis. 'Local and global: Mesogovernments and territorial identities'. Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados (CSIC), Documento de Trabajo 98-09, 1998. Paper presented at the Colloquium on ‘Identity and Territorial Autonomy in Plural Societies’, IPSA Research Committee on Politics and Ethnicity. University of Santiago (July 17-19, 1998), Santiago de Compostela, Spain [URL: http://www.csic.es/iesa/dt-9809.htm, 9 September 1998]

Moreno, Luis. The Federalization of Spain. London; Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2001