Lecture by Josep M. Muñoz, editor of L’Avenç Magazine and Visiting Professor, New York University
Spain is going through a serious institutional and political crisis. The lasting impact of the financial crisis of 2008, with its damaging economic and social consequences, has given place to a widespread social unrest. The political regime established in 1978, after a democratic transition that had been presented as a model, is now being put into question.
Deeply rooted in history, and now a crucial element in the current Spanish crisis, “the case of Catalans” emerges as a democratic revolt in front of a political and institutional system that seems to have lost its capacity to duly represent a significant majority of Catalan society.
From 2010 on, a large, inclusive movement in favor of the independence of Catalonia has gained a previously unseen and unforeseen strength. The words “Farewell, Spain” that poet Joan Maragall wrote in 1898 are now pronounced again, even if with a new intention. Trying to understand and discuss the reasons of this fundamental shift in Catalonia’s and Spain’s history is the purpose of this lecture, which also intends to raise issues that are common to other European and American democracies, particularly with respect to the crisis of political representation.