Nationalism and populism in the context of the 2021 Catalan elections: Populism at the service of opposing nationalist agendas

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the different ways of articulating nationalist demands in populist terms in the context of the 2021 Catalan elections. To this end, a content analysis has been carried out of the messages posted on Twitter by both the main Catalan nationalist parties and Vox, during the electoral campaign of the Catalan elections. Results show that Vox’s nationalism is not limited to the center-periphery conflict within the Spanish state: Vox claims to defend as its main concern the unity of the Spanish nation against peripheral nationalism; but it also defends the identity and security of the Spanish people against «the migratory invasion» and «the Islamization» of the country; as well as Spaniards’ autonomy and sovereignty against certain globalizing tendencies. On the other hand, Catalan nationalist parties exclusively contextualize nationalism around the center-periphery conflict. Nationalist demands of both types of actors are articulated in populist terms when the interests of the nation-people are pitted against certain elites and institutions considered to be privileged, corrupt and antidemocratic. In this sense, the analysis shows that populism is subordinated to nationalism as the ideological core of these formations. We argue that attacking the «national other» by denouncing the corrupt practices and abuses of power carried out by its elites and institutions, as well as the violent behavior and extremist attitudes of some of its members («fascists», «separatist street terrorists», etc.), can facilitate the democratic legitimization of nationalist discourses compared to other discursive strategies that explicitly discriminate and exclude groups with a different national identity.