“I adore the independence that you breath in Galicia,” said actor Martin Sheen, himself the son of a Galician, during a visit to the region in 2011. But he wasn’t talking about that kind of independence and, as a new poll shows, Galicians aren’t very interested in breaking away from Spain at the moment. According to the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), only 19 percent of people from the region describe themselves as “nationalist”. This is perhaps not surprising given that of Spain’s three northern “historical nations” – the others being Catalonia and the Basque Country – Galicia has traditionally had the most muted independence movement. But more interesting than the … [Read more...] about Statistics and identity
nationalism
How long can ETA ride on?
Few pieces of news can have more effectively conveyed the notion that ETA is on its knees than the arrest in mid-February of an alleged member of the violent separatist group while he was cycling through Guipúzcoa with a handgun and false papers in his backpack. Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba insisted that Ibai Beobide was on no innocent jaunt. “He wasn’t practicing sport, because nobody does sport with a gun and a pen-drive,” he said, adding that the detained man had “the worst intentions.” With Spanish and French security forces making a seemingly never-ending string of arrests of ETA militants and leaders over recent years, often in stolen vehicles, this seemed to be an … [Read more...] about How long can ETA ride on?