Why Separatists are on the Rise in Spain 

CORRECTION: At 3:05, we describe Francina Armengol as a Catalan native. As commenters have pointed out, this isn't quite correct - she is in fact from the Balearic Islands, where Catalan is widely spoken. Apologies for this sloppy error, and we hope you nonetheless enjoyed the video.

“I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of the world, Century after century trying to destroy herself and still no success”

"Here lies half of Spain, it was killed by the other half." - Mariano José de Larra (1836)

Short answer: No Long Answer:

This episode is seriously behind the times. We got home 🇨🇵 from Girona in Catalonia yesterday and follow the Spanish and Catalan press. The wave of separatism surrounding the referendum (and its aftermath) has passed, and the flavour of the moment is "increased autonomy within Spain".

Guys, what happened here? Usually your analysis might not be ultra-depth, but are right. In this case, though, there are quite a lot of failures. From Catalonia part: Armengol is from Mallorca, not Catalonia. The referendum thing is usual election talk, but no formal initiative had been taken (nor will be, because support for separation in Catalonia is in historical minimum and separatist know they will lose it. Maybe when the right wing is in government they have a chance), and Puigdemont have as much a chance of being president of the Generalitat as Richard Tice to be PM. BTW: the only party bringing the immigration to the forefront is Junts, being very right wing as they are. The government will be of Socialist party with support of ERC, and that is already well known unless something really big happens. About the Basques: EHBildu is not an "offshot of ETA". Some parties in the coalition (particularly EH) were. Look, politics in Spain is not chaotic, is just complicated. There are more axis than just left-right, like the unitarian-plurinational. And autonomic parties move also in a gradient between autonomism and separatism. So, when an analysis this in depth is done, you need a bit more expertais, and also consult a lot of sources, because many things are heavily polarized. Some of this polarization have filtered in your analysis and it shows.

Catalan separatists being called "junts" or together is very ironic 😂

Worry about tldr's increasing reliance on clickbait title images

As a Portuguese citizen I wish everything goes well for Spain although I'm not exactly certain what going well would be.

The real deal is not actually independence, but having a fiscal superiority compared to the rest of Spain, since these regions have always benefited from less fiscal pressure in order to attract foreign investment and industry, thus creating a feedback loop in which they have been the only ones to get richer, in detriment of the rest of Spain. Now that that reversed due to the instability brought upon by the referendum and the displacement of investment to Madrid and other regions (that have a more liberal tax code than Cataluña), they are complaining even more, and demanding special treatment. Last year Cataluña got 70.000 million € in debt pardoned as part of basically blackmail to keep Sanchez in power. About the Basque Country, it is well known that the roots of the Basque movement for independence lie in a supremacist and racist idea of the rest of Spain (look up Sabino Arana), which was later followed by the terrorists from ETA, many of whom have a voice in parliament now. It is disgusting. The real question is how long it will take for the rest of Spain to be fed up, not them. Obviously it is far more complex, with the oppression of languages during the dictatorship and all. But it is undeniable that they have received more care and attention than the rest of Spain. In the end, it all comes down to the education and ideals passed down through the extremely manipulated educational system, that each community controls, with 0 centralization. The real beneficiaries of these movements are the politicians, the rest of us (all of us) would only see downsides. It is also ridiculous since Spain is one of the most lenient and tolerant countries when it comes to the regional identities within. Imagine if the centralist iron fist of France was brought upon them. It is all a bunch on nonsense and hypocrisy in order to distract from the real problems haunting the country.

Separatism is on the rise? Really? Catalan separatist parties are polling lower today than the results they got in the 2021 regional elections. For the first time in decades the nationalists might not get a majority in the Catalan parliament. How on Earth is that a rise?

I live in Spain. Support for separatism in both Catalonia and the Basque Country ebbs and flows, and neither is likely to vote in the majority for independence. Basques actually already have a sweet fiscal deal, expect Catalonia to seek the same.

Just one thing, Francina Armengol is not Catalan she is from the Balearic Islands. Another’s key issue, the support to make Sanchez prime minister does not include support for budgets

“I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of the world. Century after century trying to destroy herself and still no success.” - Otto von Bismarck, addressing Spain's secessionist problem.

Spaniard here. Contrary what it might look actually the current situation is very stable. In Catalonia the independent movement is very much in declined. There are going to be elections for the catalonian party on May 12th and everything points that the nationalist parties are not going to get the majority in the parliament (first time in a decade). Plus, the 2 main catalonian parties (ERC and Junts) just can't stop fighting with each other and there is no way they will do a coalition. They rather join the PSE (catalonian PSOE). In the Basque country, both nationalist parties (Bildu and PNV) have made clear that they don't pursue independence but rather gaining more auto government.

A shorter analysis: Rich regions want to ensure they will still be rich by political leverage

As other have commented, this video contains so many inaccuracies that you would do well in deleting it and either making a new one or focusing on topics you know better about. Something that has not been so pointed out is that separatist/nationalist parties in Catalonia have always won the majority of seats at the election and, for the first time, they may NOT do. So what rise is this?

It's worth noting that what is today the Basque Country is not what the Basque Nationalists claim to be the Basque Country. For both EHBildu and PNV the Basque Country is formed by all those territories which they consider ethnically Basque (and in their view, part of the Basque Nation): Basque Community, Navarre and the Pays Basque François. The independence of the Basque Community is not what EHBildu wants.

ETA was not a armed separatist group, it was a terrorist group

As a spanish, the idea that separatists are on the rise is completey false. In fact, they're in their utter downfall. The problem is Pedro Sanchez and his amnesty law, which puts the separatists more on top than the whole spanish population regardless where a normal spanish person is from. Separatists "are on the rise" only in paper. The only thing that puts them "in rise" is Pedro Sanchez's political ageda on dealling with catalan, basque and galician separatists, as well as russian influence.

The islands (canary and balearic islands) we are not considered as part of Spain in the video 😢

Catalonia the vast part of people is no imdependentist accord Catalan independentist goverment enquiries.

This was one of the most poorly researched videos I’ve ever seen, as is most of the coverage from my country that comes from england suspiciously enough. Do they still see us as enemies today? That’s definitely how it feels like too often.

The worst thing is that they are not particularly in the rise; in Catalonia for example they have lost many votes and when asked in both the basque country in Catalonia they are way below 50% of the population. What is insane is that the president is choosing to get support from them making them the most important than ever when they are on historically low support.

I mean, Galician elections took place barely two months ago and the main pro-independent party got 30% of the votes, but let's just skip that and focus on Catalonia and the Basque Country, as always.

I don't think that our mediterranean Brothers (italian here) Will be so stupid to risk leaving the EU. If catalonia, basque, canary, whatever ever leave Spain, they Will be blocked forever from joining the EU. What for? It seems to me that it's Just posturing

Poco tendrá de España una España sin Cataluña o el Pais Vasco, son parte integra de la nación, y su riqueza cultural nos enriqueze a todos. No habrá España sin Catalunya o Euskadi, más nos valdría llamarnos Castilla.

How are people still making these videos 7 years after the refrendum

She has a very soothing voice. British people in media do have a particular vibe.

I am surprised Tldr haven't made a single video on georgia

This happens every couple of years.

Failed to mention that Sanchez repeatedly claimed he would never ever form a coalition with separatists. For over 10 years he said the same thing, all the way to months before elections. Then when he needed the extra votes. He said he “changed his mind” he didn’t lie, he just changed his mind aparently lol

As an Arizonan, I stand with my brothers and sisters in Basque and Catalonia. Arizona's name comes from a Basque term meaning "the oak tree," and our flag was chosen specifically to resemble that of Catalonia to remember where our original settlers came from. Basque shepherd communities still wander from Fredonia AZ to Casper WY.

Because we inspire them! I often go to Euskadi and Catalunya and tell them I am Quebecker and I support them! We are now #1 in the polls in Quebec. If we could synchronize our referendums, it would be the best!

This analysis is not too accurate for Catalonia. Separatist parties will likely lose majority in the Catalan parliament. Separatism is not in the rise, in fact it’s declining. It peaked in 2017 and it may have reached 50% back then, but it has always been very divided. Currently, many Catalan nationalists are disappointed and dissatisfied of how the failed referendum happened and do not trust Catalan nationalists parties. If you add Covid in the mix and the fact that the current government in Spain is more tolerant towards Catalan people and have a more plurinational view of the country, the result is that independence is no longer that popular. Especially among young people. The overall feeling is of being fed up with the situation. If Catalan separatists lose majority in the Catalan parliament, things will likely change and we will move on

I hope Spain remains intact, love from the UK🇬🇧❤🇪🇸

There are several inaccuracies here. The Spanish government never jailed any Catalan separatist, but the judiciary as the separatists committed several criminal offences, including embezzlement. Many of them were pardoned by the left led Spanish government during the last parliament on exchange of political support from separatists parties. Furthermore, Pedro Sanchez made some public commitments as red lines: 1. Never pardoning jailed Catalan leaders, 2 never change the law to decriminalise secession and embezzlement, 3 never approved an amnesty law for those separatist leader who left the country and have never been tried in courts. Pedro Sanchez has broken every promise or red lines on exchange of political support.He lacks credibility when he committed there will be no referendum of independence...

This can be only described as: *"Ah sh!t, here we go again"*

There's people "from" Catalonia living integrated all over the territory as well as people from all regions living in Catalonia. My question is: Where exactly do the separatists expect to cut?

Why is the mic so large and up so high? It's in front of her face

*Btw am I right to hear 3 different voices at **0:00**, **0:02** & **0:38**? 😂*

Hell ye boys, we bout to see Aragon, Castille and Navarra again!

Drinking game: Take a gulp every time she says "however" and you'll be on the floor.

I’m outside and I live in the best country and it’s really really great to hear information about this

Bro this video is so wrong, nobody in Spain wants to secede, but as the voting system benefits regionalist parties, these inflamatory speechs cause a lot of movement. Its just politics, Spain is not a formal democracy like other countries, but this seems to be overlooked by everyone.

Power-hungry president who is willing to sell everything to keep himself on the seat even for a single day more. That's what happened. Separatism was going down until these last years where they started to get everything they wanted.

I love the voice , tone and pace of this female reporter, pretty much alined with the main male counterparts! Please keep her in the loop :)

14% or 40%of the Basque people voted for separation? She speaks so fast.

0:00 voice 1️⃣ 0:02 voice 2️⃣ 0:38 voice 3️⃣ 😂

Armengol is not Catalan, is from Mallorca guys

a brawl is surely brewing

Spain should’ve considered extending dual citizenship to Latin American people. Paint it as a form of reparation whilst in reality bringing in educated migrants and cheap labor. Spain would have been the U.S. of Europe with a population and manufacturing boom

Just a few notes: first the basque country has had a majority of nationalist parties since the dictaitorship ended (even before, but lets not delve into history), just that there are different "levels" of nationalism, some wanting to just finally get the rights that were signed with the Spanish goverment (Gernika), others wanting some sort of federal status to be at the same level as the central goverment, and last there is straight independence. There is a hole debate about that so I won't be getting into all the details. Second, calling EH Bildu ETA is just propaganda. The party does represent the same political niche ETA represented in the turmoil of the end of the dictatorship, but the people in the party that are called out for being related to ETA are specifically the people that took part in its disolution. Calling EH Bildu ETA is just a tactic to dismis anything they may say or anyone that may do politics with them (specially when the opposition has nothing worth saying). It seems as though they wanted the basque left to leave diplomatic politics and return to take arms

The interesting thing is that the separatist movements in Spain are very leftwing, at least the Basque and Catalonian one - a thing that is almost unknown anywhere else in Europe. Usually ethno-nationalism and seperatism is considered rightwing. Usually also the more richer regions tend to be more conservative and capitalist, while poorer regions tend to be more attracted to socialism. In Spain these things are completely inverse.

the thing is that separating from Spain might be 50/50 either they succeed on own or it will just be worse

Catalonia e Slovenia 🇸🇮

Every region should be allowed a referendum once every decade whether it is Scotland, Catalonia or somewhere else in Europe

Who could've guessed that an incompetent people pleasing government typically leads to instability

"[Catalonia] received a degree of self-governance in 1979". It's true but not exact! In 1979 Catalonia already had a certain level of governance. On September, 23rd, 1977, Spain granted the restoration of the autonomous government that got in 1932 with some powers (Generalitat de Catalunya). In 1979 the Generalitat extended its powers, but these powers were not exactly the same as they were in the period 1932 - 1939. So from 1977 to 1979, the Generalitat was pre Constitution of 1978.

Catalan here. On the last weeks Ive seen How the optimism about independence has been on the rise 😊

Another TLDR video on sepratism that fails to show any understanding of nuanced topics.

This happens to me sometimes in Civ 6 for not having enough amenities for my population, the neighboring civ might also be using the Amani governor which makes you lose 2 loyalty per turn, I would recommend sending a spy to incapacitate the governor and build more entertainment complexes

In the Basque country there is a complication, the PNV are oficially pro-independence but in practise are pro-autonomy.

1:20 wow, that’s pretty manipulative A ridiculously small part of the statute of autonomy was considered inconstitutional (such as not guaranteeing that a citizen con could communicate with the Catalan institutions in Spanish) and even after that small percentage of changes were removed, it still gave more autonomy than Catalonia had before It’s like starting with 50, being given another 60, then saying that you could only be given an additional 55, and crying oppression on the streets because you were only given 105 instead of 110

Spanish Civil War 2 : Electric Boogaloo

You offer them a hand and they take your arm, they want more and more and more in exchange for very little. A lot of spaniards are tired of this, not a single party can offer a serious solution and all of them take us for fools.

Something seems off about the basque country's size, but that may just be me

Well , well , welll .....who could've thought being into government with separatist won't bring this exact same problem

Regardless on how you feel about Catalonia, we can all agree that Sanchez is an idiot. He played himself and now he is surprised at the direction Catalan politics are taking

Separatist movement in Spain are in their lowest point since 2017 now. Basque parties PNV and EHBildu are voted by many people that are not independentists and in Catalonia Junts and ERC are getting less support than what they used to get in the last decade. The situation about separatist movement is stable, what it is unstable is the general government because of the difficulty on making agreements

And in Galicia: BNG (independentist left and sovereigntist left) 31,34% in 2024 regional elections.

Separatists are actually not on the rise.

I really loved your past work, but from a certain point, all I see is "will country X or Y break apart?" Sorry, but I will not be watching click-baity and doom-without-proper-evidence-predicting videos anymore.

Legacy of the Bourbons. They exported their French-style centralisation and authoritarianism once ascended power in Spain. You see France's monarchist ideology of the Bourbons, it wasn't changed despite the 1789 Revolution, so hard to feel surprise with what's going on to Spain.

The problem is that these regions of Spain like Catalunya have never been an independent country, not even an independent area, they were part of the kingdom of Aragon, where other regions of Spain were part. Then, a union of Kingdoms formed Spain. If any, Aragon could ask to be independent, because they were the centre of that crown, Castilla is another community that could be independent because they are the leading region where the Basque country belonged, but these parts don't want to be independent. In summary, Catalunya, the Basque country and other regions of Spain being independent is like a part of Texas wanting to be independent of the US, if any is the whole of Texas or nothing

This decision should be up to the people of Catalonia/Basque country and no one else. Same goes for Scotland. Central governments in Madrid and London should not be able to decide the fate of everything.

Loving the hair do. Taking me back to the 1980s - especially combined with the cut glass accent. In a good way. Interesting content too.

just looked up for a Spain GDP per capita map, i'm not surprised, kinda similar situation like South and North Italy

It's an interesting paradox in Spain and the UK. Socialists in Madrid need support from separatists so they give them more autonomy. But they could never support independence because that would reduce their chances of forming a national coalition. We have similar with Labour and Scotland. OK, it's unlikely they will need SNP support soon, but of course they would never risk Scottish independence because it would lose them potentially 50 seats at Westminster! The Tories would be better off without Scotland, but part of their raison d'etre is unionism. Oh, and it appears Nadja has been watching old footage of Selina Scott c.1980 for grooming tips :)

I don't know why so many in the comments are upset about all the factual errors in this video 🤔 that's literally every TLDR video ever !

3:27 Galician language is already recognized. It's called Portuguese

Hopefully, they will find a good solution that ensures everyone stays united, of their own volition.

The House Speaker, Armengol, it's no "ally" of the president propped up by separatism and she is not "native catalan"... She was the PSOE president of Balearic Islands, literally from the same party as Sanchez, and she lost the regional elections in the conservative wave that gave many regions of Spain to PP and propped the general elections. As many ex-regional presidents, she got a new high profile position, in part to calm the people in the party angry at the consecuences of the strategy of last Sanchez goverment. By the way, the Balearic Islands are not even coloured on the map. I expect better from you guys. This part seems kinda porly researched, and more focused on proving a narrative... Also, you have to understand the regional administration of Spain to understand the increase on separatist parties. Spain is closer to a federation than a centralized goverment, and regions have a lot of autonomy. In the regions with historical strong nationalistic parties like Catalonia or the basques they have obtained lots of concesions from the central goverment, mostly beneficial for their population. Learning from this, other regions with less strong nationalistic movements have started to emulate them, signaling that you need more political weight on national politics and investments. This is the case of Galicia (BNG) and Valencia (Compromís). They use the "national identity" to scrap votes yes, but they are nor crazy nor stupid and know that being independent is not viable nowadays. They grow because they are seen by the population of the regions as someone that wants to protect the regions interests at regional level and at the capital. Hell, even "proper" spanish regions like Soria or Teruel are making regionalistic parties in order tto protect their interest on a national level because they have very low populations and representation and they dont want to be forgotten while they slowly die. The debate for reforming the regional administration it's an open one in the country, altough it is not as important as economical ones like healthcare quality, depopulation, housing, etc...

Spain has 3 regions of wealth concentration: Madrid, Basque Country, Catalunia. Now imagine two chunks separating :) Spain would drop to the bottom of EU map.

Sanchez should step down instead of keeping power very self centred

Spain is a great country and I really dont get why cant just be united and make the Spain better? Greetings from Istanbul/Turkey

Just saying. Those megalomaniacs do not represent all Catalans.

As a Spaniard and a political science student in Spain, I want to congratulate you for the research work on Spanish politics that you have done in this video. I have been subscribed to your RU-vid channels for a long time, and I love your way of communicating information. Keep posting please, I hope to see more of your videos (especially if they are about Spanish politics)

One correction, in one picture you show the PNV regional coalition goverment. But Vox and Popular Party aren't in coalition with PNV in Vasque Country, Vox it's actually the oposite of PNV (they hate each other), PNV formed a Coalition Goverment with PSE ("Partido Socialista de Euskadi", PSOE) after 2020 regional election.

Funny how in the cover map for the video number 3 falls on Cartagena, which also had its own independence movement (Cantonalism) in the 19th century - and there's still a few grognards who'd love to raise the red flag and secede from Murcia and the rest of Spain!

This is what happened when you recognise "Palestine"

I love europe so in my opinion catalonia is spain,s autonomas territory

Good video.

"Pedro Sánchez secured supoort from separatist parties […] and the deal garanteed their support for the next 4 years and the approval of the national budgets until 2027"? False! The good version is not always that of the strong part. The support was only to make Pedro Sánchez president again and to negociate farther support and budgets as it was told by ERC and by Junts per Catalunya.

As a Turk, I support Spanish unity. Separatists can be really annoying for sure. Those who are not suffering from it are very lucky.

Have these seperatist movements not learned anything from Brexit? Seperating for the sake of seperating is pretty dumb.

Spain has this problem, because it has always been tolerant of other cultures. You just have to look at France, it not only had Catalans and Basques, but also Corsican Bretons, etc. All eliminated from the roots, everything that was not like Paris eliminated. The problem is over.

This is full of misinformed data, those high numbers in Catalonia are the lowest in 10 years, the current national government has been growing in opinion polls in Catalonia since they won the national elections. ERC the left separatist party is slowly falling, explaining the growth of Junts. Also PNV, is not a separatist party at all and will make a coalition with the current national government. There is no point to this video except if it was to show how the PSOE government might actually be successfully fixing the issue in Catalonia.

Her voice is calming fr

Here's a simple logic game. Basic Aristotle formal logic used in mathematics, AI and science. That our brain is already capable of using out of the box, what it already uses intrinsically as, reasoning, although sometimes it is convenient to refresh it on paper. In Formal Context Analysis Theory, by its acronym in English FCA we define a formal concept as a tuple C ={O,A} where O is the set of objects related to the concept C, or extension, and A the set of attributes that C possesses, or intension. In FCA the concepts can be ordered in a typical ontological tree, where those that appear below are subconcepts of those above. An example is the concept "feline", as a supraconcept of the concept "cat", which inversely is a subconcept of "feline", so an order relationship or generalization of feline is defined, if and only if: -O_cat is a subset of O_feline. This is because the set O_feline contains the set O_cat, that is, it is related to it. -In turn, A_feline is a subset of A_cat. That is, a subconcept can indeed have more additional attributes, but will essentially contain all of its supraconcepts. i.e. all “cats” are “felines”. It is inmediate to see it, with the following instances: feline = O ("Feline", ["cat", "lion", "tiger", "leopard"], A ["has retractable claws", "has whiskers", "carnivorous"]) cat = O ("Cat", ["Siamese", "Persian", "Maine Coon"], A["has retractable claws", "has whiskers", "carnivorous", "domesticated", "can purr"]) We all know why nation-states in contemporary political thought need to be objective facts, that is, they are intended to be logical concepts whose essential attributes are also necessarily objective. That is why, for example, the person who writes this cannot say that he is not from Granada, Spain that he is actually from Madagascar; just as he cannot say that Portugal is a continent or that Nebraska is an island, or that Lyon is a country. You can think it and believe it as much as you want, but saying it won't make it true. Therefore, when it is said that "Catalonia is a nation", regardless of whether that is true or not, what we have to look for logically, is whether Catalonia is not a subconcept of the concept of Spain, or that Spain is not a supraconcept of Catalonia, i.e. Catalonia is not Spain; through the order relationship, or generalization described above. Whoever achieves it should patent it and write a book: many people will buy. Well, It is true that the political and cultural realities of regions and nations can be much more complex, nuanced and less rigid than formal definitions in mathematics, but that implies that logic simply lacks information-instances. And not, that it snt valid. (In FCA, to know if a bunch of sets O are related, it is done by following the relationships of A between the other objects or instances of information in the context, so that if we have several instances that share the same attributes, derivation operators are subsequently defined and s.t. calculation algorithms, where the relationships between sets of objects can be obtained).