Political discourses on territorial identity in left and centre-left political parties of Valencia

Abstract

In recent decades, much of the Valencian nationalism movement has undergone a transformation in which it has moved from an objectivist definition of the nation (with language being of decisive importance and therefore with the group of the Catalan Countries as the national frame) to a rather subjectivist definition (“the will to be”) that explicitly establishes a strictly Valencian national frame that is separated politically from Catalonia. Using a comparative approach, this work contributes to deepening the political discourse on territorial identity of left-wing and centre-left-wing militants of Valencian parties in order to determine the impact of this revised definition and hence the validity of Fuster’s legacy, who formulated this objectivist conception of the nation in the sixties. For this purpose, we conducted semi-structured interviews with militants of the Bloc, EUPV and PSPV-PSOE parties of Alicante, Alcoy and Valencia. In general, we find that Fuster’s views remain strong among these militants, particularly among the Bloc militants. Rather than integrating the Valencian view, these militants have accepted it as a path to widen the local political project. In contrast, the EUPV has not revised this concept and Fuster continues to be a reference in the identity foreground. Finally, we show that these proposals carry an important weight in the Valencianist views of the PSPV-PSOE. The territorial variable is also revealed to be a key issue in the analysis as the Alcoy area has engaged in a patently Fusterian discourse.