Articulations of populism and nationalism: the case of the Catalan independence movement

Despite the widespread conflation in Europe between populism and nationalism, the Catalan independence movement has commonly been approached as merely a case of nationalism but has been rarely studied by scholars in the field of populism. Drawing on discourse theory, this paper will explore the discursive sequences through which the actors forming the Catalan independence movement organized social relations and constituted their common identity. The objective is to disclose the nature of the discursive dynamics that led to the 2017 independence bid: whether populist, nationalist or both populist and nationalist. Firstly, I will establish a theoretical framework concerning populism, nationalism, and the conditions for the articulation among the two; secondly, I will examine the development of the political discourses within the main Catalan secessionist actors between 2006 and 2017. This study will defend that the Catalan independence movement, as an encompassing hegemonic project, emerged only after the dominant Catalan nationalist discourse shifted towards an articulation of populism with the previous nationalism around the year 2012, with the populist discourse taking predominance until the year 2017