1992: The Modernity of the Past. The PSOE in Search of a Regenerated Idea of Spain

Abstract

The PSOE, who had an absolute majority since 1982, instigated a series of policies over the decade designed to foster a strategic national identity acceptable to as many social and territorial constituents as possible. 1992 was the culmination of this process. This article critically assesses the image of national identity that the PSOE attempted to transmit to the general population with mixes success. The particular focus is on cultural activities relating to the V Centenary of the Discovery of America and on the attempt to promote a modern Spanish identity through the Expo’92. My contention will be that it is not possible to identify a new socialist Spanish idea, but that it is meaningful to speak in terms of the recovery of Regenerationists ideas of the early twentieth century liberal nationalism. The American myth, in fact, came from such cultural substrate and it allowed once again to recover, although ambiguously, some ideological aspects of the battered Spanish nationalism. In 1992 Spain was keen to present an image of herself to the world as a special «bridge» between Latin America and Europe. The «transnational» 1992 Spain was the manifestation of a double national identity that the PSOE also tried to strategically maintain through the political slogan «encounter between two worlds.»