Galician nationalism

Galician nationalism is a form of nationalism found in mostly in Galicia, which asserts that Galicians are a nation and that promotes the cultural unity of Galicians. The political movement referred to as modern Galician nationalism was born at the beginning of the twentieth century from the idea of Galicianism.

Historians, geographers and ethnologists recognize the existence of a Galician ethnic group, forming a singular unit in a specific territory. However, this is a wide conceptualization that in political terms allows many possible variants. Inside Galician nationalism two main ideological currents can be found:

Both autonomists and "independentists" have points in common, such as the defence and promotion of Galician culture and language, with some defending reintegrationism with Portuguese language and culture. Both also argue for the official and unequivocal recognition of Galicia as a nation and the defence of Galician speakers outside administrative Galician territory, in Galician-speaking areas of the Spanish regions of Asturias and Castile and León.

It is often considered that the ideological framework of contemporary Galician nationalism was set in Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao's key work Sempre em Galiza (lit. "Always in Galicia"), published in 1944.

Galician nationalist candidates received 19% of the vote in the elections of 2005 and 16% in 2009.

From 2005 to 2009 Galicia was ruled by a coalition government between the Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdeG-PSOE) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). Unlike in other Spanish autonomous communities the conservative and pro-Spanish People's Party of Galicia (PPdeG) includes galicianism as one of its ideological principles. Even the Spanish Socialist Party has a quite strong regional flavour in Galicia. This issue somehow explains electoral behaviour in Galicia and why nationalist parties have a reduced representation when compared to Catalonia or the Basque Country, as voters in Galicia may choose to go for Spanish parties promoting Galicianism depending on the circumstances. Spanish parties in Catalonia and Basque Country, namely the Partido Popular, do not have such a strong regional identity, but the Socialist Party in Catalonia has recently incorporated nationalist elements in its political discourse.

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