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5Constitutional Patriotism and Constitutionalism in the Basque Country

In November 1991, Jürgen Habermas spoke at a conference in Madrid, presenting his idea of ‘constitutional patriotism’ and its application to the European context.1 During the 1990s, the constitutional patriotism formula was adapted to the Spanish context. Within the public debate in Spain, this was something of a milestone. The proposal was to develop a new sentiment of collective attachment to Spain, based on identification with a political system symbolized by the 1978 Constitution. The key principles enshrined in the constitution are liberty and equality before the law of all citizens, regardless of their ethnic identity. The development of a patriotic sentiment based on these principles would, according to its supporters, put an end to the persistent nationalist tensions in Spain, particularly in the Basque country and Catalonia.

In the first years of the twenty-first century, constitutional patriotism was incorporated into the programmes of the two dominant political parties in Spain: the People’s Party (Partido Popular, PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE). This generated an intense debate among politicians, in the media, and in specialized academic publications. Although constitutional patriotism was often presented as a generic formula to resolve ethno-nationalist tensions in Spain, the chronology of events seems to indicate that it was specifically intended to be applied to the political situation in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (ACBC) at the time....