Comparison of contemporary Spanish nationalisms: dangerous separatism or pattern of European regionalism?

Spain is not composed with only one nation, it is indeed a multinational state, which is thus logically homeland for many nationalisms and nationalism-related problems. First, I analyze the historical causes of the emergence of nationalisms in the Basque country, Catalonia and Galicia. These causes are the regionalistic tradition of Spain combined with proper attributes of each of these regions, such as economical power, different language and culture and historical experience with self government in the case of Catalonia, distinct "race" and attractive mythology in the case of the Basque country and again, proper language and culture in the case of Galicia, accentuated with their Celtic origins. 98Second, I analyze the democratic transition from a nationalistic point of view: the constitution of 1978 permitted a strong decentralization and the construction of a state of autonomies. That gave a relative satisfaction to nationalisms but new problems are appearing. Third, I consider nationalisms within the framework of parties and party systems: each of the three regions has a moderate nationalistic party, which is often dominant in its respective region, but their moderate character is often a pragmatic one, moreover Catalonia and especially the Basque country have relevant radical parties. As a conclusion,..