During and after every major international soccer tournament, the same facile clichés are peddled about the sport being a great unifier of people. And with ethnically fractured Spain taking the Euro 2008 title on Sunday, there has been plenty of talk about soccer having brought the divided country together under one flag. But as the euphoria dies down, the idea of a suddenly harmonious nation will prove to be of limited duration, writes Victor de la Serna.
“Beyond the outburst of pride and emotion that has seen cities and towns in Castile and Andalusia, as well as Catalonia and the Basque Country, festooned with red and gold,” he writes, “the dogged determination of separatist parties to keep chipping away at the remains of a unitary state and to prepare for eventual secession remains.” Some separatist politicians from the above regions “publicly and defiantly wished for the defeat of Spain’s team in Vienna. They are left flustered, but by no means cowed.”
De la Serna says that the victory has elicited more passion than any other sporting triumph in Spain’s history, and that the celebrations reflected “a need to let go of the anguish and concern over recent events in the political field, to let off some steam and to show that most Spaniards are still for team play.” And yet, for a number of historical and sociological reasons, once emotions have calmed down and normal life resumes “it will take more than renewed national pride after a sporting victory to make the same citizens turn away from Catalan or Basque nationalism in regional or parliamentary elections.” For now, he concludes, “the path towards Spain’s dismemberment is unbroken.”