Tabarnia amb vot independentista-unionista

Tabarnia (; ) is a fictional region within

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

, a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...

of the

Catalan independence movement The Catalan independence movement ( ca, independentisme català; Spanish: ''independentismo catalán'') is a social and political movement (with roots in Catalan nationalism) which seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain. The beginnings ...

and a movement against the independence of Catalonia from Spain. The Tabarnia movement mirrors the independentist movement advocating for a referendum to create a new Spanish autonomous community out of coastal urban parts of Catalonia, a region that gathers most of the population of Catalonia and in which, in general, votes for independentist parties rarely reach 50% of the votes. It would encompass the current

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

comarques This is a list of the 42 ''comarques'' (singular ''comarca'', , ) into which Catalonia is divided. A ''comarca'' is a group of municipalities, roughly equivalent to a county in the US or a district or council in the UK. However, in the context ...

'' of

Maresme Maresme () is a ''comarca'' (county) located along the Catalan Mediterranean coast in Spain, between the ''comarques'' of Barcelonès (at the Southwest) and Selva (at the Northeast), and also bordering with Vallès Oriental (at the west). Its c ...

Baix Camp Baix Camp () is a comarca of Catalonia. It is one of the three comarques into which Camp de Tarragona was divided in the comarcal division of 1936. Baix Camp is located on the coast, between Tarragonès to the northeast and Baix Ebre to the south ...

Baix Penedès Baix Penedès () is a Comarques of Catalonia, comarca in Catalonia, Spain. The area has been settled since the times of the Iberians, with ancient ruins remaining in Banyeres at ''Can Canyís'', in the capital El Vendrell at the village of ''Guà ...

Alt Penedès Alt Penedès () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia, northern Spain. The capital is Vilafranca del Penedès Vilafranca del Penedès, or simply Vilafranca (), is the capital of the ''comarca'' of the Alt Penedès in Catalonia, Spain. The Spanish ...

Garraf Garraf (), better known as El Garraf (), is a comarca (county) in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, northern Spain. It is named after the Garraf Massif. The GR 92 long distance footpath, which roughly follows the length of the Mediterranea ...

Baix Llobregat Baix Llobregat () is a comarca (county) on the coast of Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is Sant Feliu de Llobregat. Municipalities Proposed changes It has long been proposed to split the northern part of Baix Llobregat into a separate comarca. ...

Barcelonès Barcelonès () is the most economically important comarca (county) of Catalonia, Spain. It contains Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of ...

Vallès Oriental Vallès Oriental () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is Granollers. Along with Vallès Occidental it forms the grand comarca of Vallès. In May 2015, Vallès Oriental lost four municipalities - Castellcir, Castellterçol, ...

Vallès Occidental Vallès Occidental () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain. Sabadell and Terrassa are the comarcal capitals. Along with Vallès Oriental it forms the grand comarca of Vallès, and is part of the Barcelona metropolitan area. Physical geogra ...

and Tarragonés. The Tabarnia movement assumes that the sovereign subject is not the total of Catalans, but the total of Spaniards (as stated in the Spanish Constitution), so it proposes satirically a

gerrymandering In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

strategy to mirror another case of alleged gerrymandering by Catalan independentists, that propose breaking the sovereignty of Spain to decide if Catalonia should become a separate state, allowing people to vote only where secessionism could have chances to win. Proponents believe the area somewhat corresponds to the historic

County of Barcelona The County of Barcelona ( la, Comitatus Barcinonensis, ca, Comtat de Barcelona) was originally a frontier region under the rule of the Carolingian dynasty. In the 10th century, the Counts of Barcelona became progressively independent, heredi ...

, although its extent is considerably different. This proposal, from a platform created in 2011 provoked renewed interest after the electoral results of the

2017 Catalan regional election The 2017 Catalan regional election was held on Thursday, 21 December 2017 to elect the 12th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was called by Spanish prime minist ...

. The word 'Tabarnia' went viral on 26 December 2017, reaching worldwide top-trending status with over 648,000 mentions. The only major demonstration organized by the Tabarnia movement took place in Barcelona on 4 March 2018, with 15,000 participants according to the Guarda Urbana and 200,000 according to organizers. The term, the concept and the Tabarnia flag were invented by a neighbor of Barcelona named Daniel de la Fuente in 2012. Jaume Vives and Albert Boadella (considered one of the founders of

Ciudadanos Citizens ( es, link=no, Ciudadanos ; ca, link=no, Ciutadans ; eu, link=no, Hiritarrak; gl, link=no, Cidadáns; shortened as Cs—C's until January 2017), officially Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (''Ciudadanos–Partido de la Ciudadanía'') ...

) have self-proclaimed to be the spokesman and president of Tabarnia. Jaume Vives stated: "It is starting to achieve its objective, that the (Catalan) independentists start debunking their own arguments.". Miquel Martinez presents itself as the representative of Platform for Tabarnia, but in the association registry of Catalonia only exists the "Associació Somos Tabarnia" (Association We are Tabarnia). At a Spain level two other platforms exist: "Coordinadora por Tabarnia" and "Asamblea Nacional de Tabarnia". Several anti-secession parties and organisations have publicized and participated in events in support of the idea of Tabarnia. Those include Ciudadanos, Partido Popular, Vox and Plataforma per Catalunya. On the Internet, the

sensationalist In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emo ...

, ultra-Catholic and far-right blog ''

Dolça Catalunya ''Dolça Catalunya'' (equivalent in English as 'Sweet Catalonia'), is an Blog, online blog of opinion and essay linked to the History of the far-right in Spain, Spanish far-right. It is written in a deliberately Macaronic language, macaronic amalg ...

'' contributed to boost its popularity. Other parties and movements, mostly pro-secession, have criticized the concept of Tabarnia, like Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, PDeCAT and the far-right and xenophobic Moviment Identitari Català and Front Nacional de Catalunya.

Movement

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Proponents of Tabarnia wish to distance themselves from the Catalan separatist movement and reclaim the right of a number of territories near the area of Barcelona and Tarragona to constitute themselves as an autonomous community within Spain. In the

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Catalan regional elections, parties opposed to secession (mainly

Citizens Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

, PSC and PP) received a

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Websterplurality of votes in the comarca of

, yet not in the city of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

itself. They allude to a series of fiscal arguments similar to those of Catalan separatism in regards to Spain. The term "Tabarnia" is a

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

based on the names of Province of Tarragona, Tarragona and

, the two Catalan provinces where support for separatism is lower, although in last Catalan election, Tarragona province showed more support for separatism than unionism. The movement uses as a legal basis the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Clarity Act The ''Clarity Act'' (french: Loi sur la clarté référendaire) (known as Bill C-20 before it became law) (the act) is legislation passed by the Parliament of Canada that established the conditions under which the Government of Canada would ent ...

, according to which regions opposed to Quebecois separatism are to remain within Canada in case of a secession, as well as Articles 143 and 144 of the

Spanish constitution The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese language, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the Democracy, democratic law that is supreme l ...

, which allows the formation of autonomous communities. An ongoing online petition is taking place at

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

in order to be sent to the Spanish

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

to consider the creation of this new autonomous region. It has received 281 000 signatures to date. On 4 March 2018 a protest mocking the Catalan independence bid was organized by the Tabarnia movement. 15 000 demonstrators according to the urban guard and 200 000 according to the organizers gathered with Spanish, Tabarnian and Catalan flags and waived slogans for Tabarnia mimicking those of the Catalan independence movement. The protest started with a floral offering at the statue of

Rafael Casanova Rafael Casanova i Comes (; 1660 – 2 May 1743) was a Catalan jurist and supporter of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor as a claimant to the Crown of Spain during the War of the Spanish succession. He became mayor of Barcelona and commander in chief o ...

, Considered by the independentists a patriot of their cause, but that according to one of his descendants present at the protest was actually a Spanish patriot. According to one of the organizers, the goal of the protest was to show the absurdity of the arguments for independence. He told the media that "we want to be the mirror of what the independence movement is all about". The protest was also criticized by some separatists which claim that Tabarnia trivializes their movement, which according to them is based on a distinct cultural identity and a long history of tension with Madrid. The protest ended at Saint James's Square, directly across from the

Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya The Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya is a historic palace in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It houses the offices of the Presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It is one of the few buildings of medieval origin in Europe that still function ...

. The protest on 4 March received support from some civic and political associations, including the pro Spanish union platform Societat Civil Catalana, and far-right political parties like PxC and Vox. An online petition was begun on

to have the name of the (Catalan Countries Square) changed to "".

Political claims

Tabarnians claim vote representation in Catalonia to be unfair across the four different provinces Lleida, Girona, Tarragona and Barcelona, resulting in unfair economic investment. Under the current electoral law, in the province of Barcelona 48,521 votes are needed to elect one representative in the Catalan Parliament for the 20,915 votes needed in Lleida, resulting in a 2.3 ratio. Tarragona requires 31,317 votes and Girona 30,048. Catalan separatists argue the current electoral law ensures political representation for areas with a lower population density while tabarnians argue the law has not been revised because historically Lleida and Girona have always had a majority of voters in favor of the separatist political parties that have kept them in government. The same way Catalan separatist have used an interpretation of economic data to argue they have an unfavourable finance balance towards the rest of Spain, Tabarnians argue Tarragona and Barcelona underrepresentation in the Catalan Parliament has resulted in unfavourable finance balance towards their region, also backed by similar interpretation of economic data.

Demonym

On 27 December 2017, following public enquiry by Spanish citizens, the

Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...

(Royal Academy of Spanish Language) informed through their Twitter account that the most appropriate demonym for Tabarnia would be "Tabarnés" among other possible options such as "tabarniense", "tabarniano", or "tabinososano".

Hypothetical territory and historical revisionism

Tabarnia is a fictional territorial proposal that does not correspond to any present political or administrative unit. The tabarnian movement mirrors the alleged

historical revisionism In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...

by Catalan separatists, and finds a precedent of territorial political and administrative unit at a certain point in history that justifies their existence: According to their own publication, the County of Barcelona, during the Middle Ages, had a similar territory to the one proposed by Tabarnians, today. Most sources consider Tabarnia to be just a fictional region.

Controversy

The movements founders, Catalan politicians such as

Inés Arrimadas Inés Arrimadas García (; born 3 July 1981) is a Spanish lawyer and politician serving as Member of the Congress of Deputies and Spokesperson of Citizens party in the Congress. She was previously the leader of the regional branch of the party ...

and numerous commentators have argued that the rise of this movement creates tension among the Catalan separatist movement because it serves as a mirror of their argumental contradiction. By using their same arguments for independence, it forces Catalan separatists to contradict themselves by using " unionist" counter-arguments in order to discredit the Tabarnia movement. By proposing the hypothetical separation of Tabarnia from Catalonia, the founders of the Tabarnia project want for the separatist politicians to realize that a large proportion of Catalans consider themselves Spanish and do no not want to leave Spain and that a declaration of independence could trigger similar movements within the territory, to the point of absurdity. According to Manuel Muñiz, the dean of the school of international relations at IE University in Madrid, it sparked a debate over "who is to vote and when" in a democracy and he questioned whether regions should be the ones entitled to decide on their independence or if cities would also qualify? Or should it be neighborhoods within cities? According to Salvador Garcia Ruiz, the chief executive of ''Ara'', Tabarnia is nothing more than a sour response to the results of the

in which the independentists did not lose their majority over the parliament. He labeled Tabarnia as

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

's "Neverland" for the unionists. Podemos' leader Pablo Iglesias was also critical with the movement because he claimed it was fueling an unhelpful "war of flags" but the spokesman for Tabarnia claims that the goal was never to break up Catalonia, but rather ending Catalan secessionism and all its disruptive consequences.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Tabarnia
Barcelona is not Catalonia website
Proposed political divisions Politics of Catalonia Spanish political satire