| Catalan Countries Països Catalans |
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The concept of the Catalan Countries includes territories of the following sovereign states: |
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| State | Territory |
| Spain | Catalonia Valencian Community Balearic Islands Aragon (for Western Strip) Murcia (for Carche) |
| France | Northern Catalonia in the Pyrénées-Orientales department |
| Andorra | Catalan is the official language |
| Italy | Alghero ( Sardinia) |
The Catalan term Països Catalans (Eastern Catalan: [pəˈizus kətəˈɫans], Western Catalan: [paˈizos kataˈlans]; English: Catalan Countries) refers to the territories where the Catalan language is spoken.[1]
The first mentions of the term date back to the late 19th century, but it never surpassed the limits of a small circle of Catalan authors until its strictly cultural dimension became increasingly politically charged by the late 1960s and early 1970s, as Francoism began to die out in Spain. Thus, what had remained to date as a cultural term restricted to connaisseurs of Catalan philology, then rose to prominence and became highly controversial during the Spanish Transition period, most acrimoniously in Valencia during the 1980s.
The Països Catalans do not have any legal entity nor is there any universal territorial definition of the scope covered by this concept. It may refer strictly to the territories in which the different varieties of Catalan are traditionally spoken, or it may be extended to the entire political entities in which Catalan has some official status, in spite of the fact that those entities include areas where Catalan is not spoken (the map to the right covers this latter usage).
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Països Catalans has different meanings depending on the context. These can be roughly classified in two groups: linguistic or political, the political definition of the concept being the widest, since it also encompasses the linguistic side of it.
As a linguistic term, Països Catalans is used in a similar fashion to the English Anglosphere, the French Francophonie, the Portuguese Lusofonia or the Spanish Hispanophone territories.
As a political term it refers to a number of political projects[2] as advocated by Catalan independentism. These, based on the linguistic fact, argue for the existence of a common national identity that would surpass the limits of each territory covered by this concept and would apply also to the remaining ones. These movements advocate for "political collaboration"[3] amongst these territories. This often stands for their union and political independence.[4] As a consequence of the opposition these political projects have received –notably in some of the territories described by this concept[5]– some cultural institutions avoid the usage of Països Catalans in some contexts, as a means to prevent any political interpretation; in these cases, equivalent expressions (such as Catalan-speaking countries) or others (such as the linguistic domain of Catalan language) are used instead.[6]
| The Catalan/Valencian cultural domain |
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Map of Catalan language domain
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Geo-political divisions
Andorra · Balearic Islands · Catalonia
Northern Catalonia · Valencian Community Alghero · El Carxe · La Franja See Geographic distribution of Catalan |
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Traditions and Symbols
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Catalan is spoken in:
Catalan is the official language of Andorra, co-official with Spanish and Occitan in Catalonia, co-official with Spanish in the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community —with the denomination of Valencian in the latter— and co-official with Italian in the city of Alghero. It is also part of the recognized minority languages of Italy along with Sardinian, also spoken in Alghero.
It is not official in Aragon, Murcia or the Pyrénées-Orientales, even though, recently, the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized Catalan, along with French, as a language of the department, on 10 December 2007,[7] and in 2009 Catalan language was declarated llengua pròpia (with Aragonese language) of Aragon.[8]
There are several endeavors and collaborations amongst some of the diverse government and cultural institutions involved. One such case is the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL), founded in 2002 by the Government of the Balearic Islands and the government of Catalonia. Its main objective is to promote Catalan language and culture abroad in all its variants, as well as the works of writers, artists, scientists and researchers of the regions which are part of it. On 2008, in order the extend the collaboration to institutions from all across the Catalan Countries, the IRL and the government of Andorra (which formerly had enjoyed occasional collaboration, most notably in the Frankfurt Book Fair of 2007) created the Ramon Llull Foundation (FRL), an international cultural institution with the same goals as IRL.[9][10] In 2009 the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales, the city council of Alghero and the Network of Valencian Cities (an association of a few Valencian city councils) joined the FRL as well.[11][12][13]
Another relevant example is the Joan Lluís Vives Institute, a collaborative network constituted by universities in the Catalan linguistic domain.
The term is controversial because many non-Catalans see the concept of the Països Catalans as regional exceptionalism, counterpoised to a centralizing Spanish and French national identity. Others see it as an attempt by a Catalonia proper centered nationalism to lay a hegemonic claim to the historically Catalan regions in southern France or, in Spain, to Valencia or the Balearic Islands – where the prevailing feeling is that they have their own respective historical personality, not necessarily related to Catalonia's, as the Països Catalans term would suggest. Some authors, also within the Catalan literature, have dubbed the term as "inconvenient", while attesting that the concept has generated more reactions against it than actual positive adhesions.[14]
Thus, in extensive areas included in the territories designated by some as Països Catalans, Catalan nationalist sentiment is uncommon or nonexistent. For example, in the Valencian Community case, Esquerra Repúblicana del País Valencià (ERPV) is the most relevant party explicitly supportive of the idea but its representation is limited to a total of four local councilors elected in three municipalities[15] (out of a total of 5,622 local councilors elected in the 542 Valencian municipalities). At the regional level, it has run twice (2003 and 2007) to the regional Parliament election, receiving less than 0.50% of the total votes.[16] In all, its role in Valencian politics is currently marginal.[17]
There are other parties which consider this term only in its cultural or linguistical fact, not believing in national-political unity, as in the case of the Bloc Nacionalista Valencià. The Valencian Nationalist Bloc (Valencian: Bloc Nacionalista Valencià, Bloc or BNV; IPA: [ˈblɔg nasionaˈlista valensiˈa]) is the largest Valencian nationalist party in the Valencian Country, Spain.
The Bloc's main aim is, as stated in their guidelines, "to achieve full national sovereignty for the Valencian people, and make it legally declared by a Valencian sovereign Constitution allowing the possibility of association with the countries which share the same language, history and culture".[18] For the 2011 Valencian Regional elections, they stood in a new electoral coalition called Coalició Compromís and won six seats in the regional parliament. For the local election of the same year they maintained the coalition and reached a target of more than 300 seats, and at the 2011 Spanish General Election the coalition won a historic seat in the Spanish parliament.
Some of the most vocal defenders or promoters of the "Catalan Countries" concept (such as Joan Fuster, Josep Guia or Vicent Partal) were Valencian.
The subject became very controversial during the politically agitated Spanish Transition in what was to become the Valencian Community, especially in and around the city of Valencia. In the late 70s and early 80s, when the Spanish Autonomous Communities system was taking shape, the controversy reached its height. Various Valencian right wing politicians (originally from Unión de Centro Democrático) fearing what was seen as an annexation attempt from Catalonia, fueled a violent Anti-Catalanist campaign against local supporters of the concept of the Països Catalans, which even included a handful of unsuccessful attacks with explosives against authors perceived as flagships of the concept, such as Joan Fuster or Manuel Sanchis i Guarner. The concept's revival during this period was behind the formation of the fiercely opposed and staunch anti-Catalan blaverist movement, led by Unió Valenciana, which, in turn, significantly diminished during the 90s and the 2000s as the Països Catalans controversy slowly disappeared from the Valencian political arena.
This confrontation between politicians from Catalonia and Valencia very much diminished in severity during the course of the late 1980s and, especially, the 1990s as the Valencian Community's regional government became consolidated. Since then, the topic has lost most of its controversial potential, even though occasional clashes may appear from time to time, such as controversies regarding the broadcasting of Catalan television in Valencia —and vice versa— or the usage by Catalan official institutions of terms which are perceived in Valencia as Catalan nationalistic, such as Països Catalans or País Valencià (Valencian Country).
As for the other territories, there are no political parties even mentioning the Països Catalans as a public issue neither in Andorra, nor in la Franja, Carche or Alghero. In the Balearic islands, support for parties related to Catalan nationalism is around 10% of the total votes.[19] Reversely, the Popular Party –which is a staunch opponent of whatever political implications for the Països Catalans concept– is the majority party in Valencia and the Balearic islands.
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 contains a clause forbidding the formation of federations amongst Autonomous Communities.[20] Therefore, if the case was that the Països Catalans idea gained a majority democratic support in future elections, a constitutional amendment would still be needed for those parts of the Països Catalans lying in Spain to create a common legal representative body.
Nonetheless, in the addenda to the Constitution there is a clause allowing an exception to this rule in the case of Navarre, which can join the Basque Country should the people choose to do so.
The term Països Catalans was first documented in "Historia del Derecho en Cataluña, Mallorca y Valencia. Código de las Costumbres de Tortosa, I" (History of the Law in Catalonia, Majorca and Valencia. Code of the Customs of Tortosa, I) written by the Valencian Law historian Benvingut Oliver i Esteller.
The term was both challenged and reinforced by the use of the term "Occitan Countries" from the Oficina de Relacions Meridionals (Office of Southern Relations) in Barcelona by 1933. Another proposal which enjoyed some popularity during the Renaixença was "Pàtria llemosina" (Llemosine Motherland), proposed by Victor Balaguer as a federation of Catalan-speaking provinces; both these coinages were based on the theory that Catalan is a dialect of Occitan.
None of these names reached widespread cultural usage and the term nearly vanished until it was rediscovered, redefined and put in the center of the identitary cultural debate by Valencian writer Joan Fuster. In his book Nosaltres els valencians (We, the Valencians, published in 1962) a new political interpretation of the concept was introduced; from the original, meaning roughly Catalan-speaking territories, Fuster developed a political inference closely associated to Catalan nationalism. This new approach would refer to the Catalan Countries as a more or less unitary nation with a shared culture which had been divided by the course of history, but which should logically be politically reunited. Fuster's preference for Països Catalans gained popularity, and previous unsuccessful proposals such as Comunitat Catalànica (Catalanic Community) or Bacàvia [21] (after Balearics-Catalonia-Valencia) diminished in use.
Today the term is politically charged, and tends to be closely associated with Catalan nationalism and Catalan independentism. The idea of uniting these territories in an independent state is supported by a number of political parties, ERC being the most important in terms of representation. Other groups with no representation in the relative regional parliaments, such as ERPV, PSAN, Estat Català, CUP also support this idea to a greater or lesser extent.
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