The Cultural Paradiplomacy of Catalonia: a sample of Local Diplomacy in one of the main Spanish Autonomous Communities

The internationalization of Local Governments continues to be a great challenge for National Governments, especially when there are discrepancies regarding the management of foreign policy and different agents are pursued depending on the current government. Around the world there are autonomous communities within the national territory that have been characterized by seeking agendas other than that of the central government, on this, Zapata (2022) makes an analysis of what have been some of the examples where this dissent is observed:

The most representative examples have been the mobilization in the Spanish autonomous regions such as the experiences of the Basque Country and Catalonia […] where there have been movements against the central government because they did not feel identified with the purposes of the policy abroad.

As Zapata (2022) affirms in his article Conflict resolution methods in Paradiplomacy: the challenges of the mediator in the internationalization of local governments, it is inevitable that there will be a confrontation when local governments differ with central governments, since the former they do not feel identified with the central state and seek relations abroad or "an agenda that does not depend on traditional diplomatic actors."

Spain is a vast country that is constitutionally subdivided into autonomous communities that "have political and financial autonomy" (Government of Spain, s/f). It is organized territorially by a decentralization system, by Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Navarra and Galicia; seventeen Autonomous Communities in total, two cities with autonomy statute (Ceuta and Melilla) and 8,125 local entities, within which some communities stand out for having their own and co-official language (Government of Spain, s/f).

According to Nouvilas (2012), some of these regions, including Catalonia, have taken regional mobilization beyond the State, establishing regional offices in Brussels, to have direct contact with the European Union. For Badiello, cited in Nouvilas (2012), it is considered that "the regional presence in Brussels clearly reflects the strategies of the territories to get closer to Europe to thus guarantee a key point of reference for their regional governments".

Likewise, it is thanks to the Maastricht Treaty of 1994 that the Committee of the Regions was created in Europe, which placed the continent as "the appropriate place to defend the interests of the regions beyond the State" (Nouvilas, 2012) opening the door to which more autonomous communities will install offices in Brussels. Due to this, it is not surprising that the Basque Country and the autonomous community of Catalonia, considered as Spanish historical regions, "were the first to establish a permanent office in Brussels" (Nouvilas, 2012).

Currently, the Government of Catalonia has 14 delegations around the world, which seek to strengthen its position on the international stage and strengthen ties with strategic countries (Generalitat de Catalunya, s/f). This has led to the development of its own Diplomacy, as an autonomous region, characterized by the objectives of its foreign action focused on having a presence in the world. These delegations are:

1. Government Delegation to the European Union.
2. Delegation of the Government in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
3. Delegation of the Government in Germany.
4. Government Delegation in the United States of America.
5. Delegation of the Italian Government.
6. Delegation of the Government in Switzerland.
7. Delegation of the Government in France.
8. Government Delegation in Southeast Europe.
9. Government Delegation in Central Europe.
10. Nordic countries and Baltic countries.
11. Government Delegation in Portugal.
12. Government Delegation in the Southern Cone.
13. Government Delegation in Mexico and Central America.
14. Government Delegation in Tunis.

The image of Catalonia in the world

According to a study on the international image of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT, 2021), it stands out for being politicized, it is known for its independence, but also for its culture. That is why an analysis of the cultural paradiplomacy of this autonomous region is carried out below.

Duchacek, cited in Kuznetsov (2014), mentions that protodiplomacy is the term used to describe those initiatives and activities of Non-Central Governments abroad that insert a separatist message into their economic, social and cultural ties with foreign nations. That is why within this analysis the term protodiplomacy and its connection with Catalan paradiplomacy will be covered.

This is how Catalonia, says Valentín (2019), went around the world in 2017, due to the so-called "revolution of smiles", in which the Catalan separatists achieved the objective of issuing a statement that would reach not only Spain but the abroad. It was called that because it consisted of massive, colorful and festive marches and rallies to which entire families attended, it was sought that there would be no incidents, and in them the power to vote and form a peaceful republic, the backbone of the Catalan independence movement, was claimed.

On the other hand, that has had a radical change. After what happened in 2017, the revolution of smiles ended, giving rise to violent protests with hooded men, who severely expressed the need to be forcibly independent from the Spanish State:

The scenario has completely changed. The streets are no longer filled with peaceful protests and smiles. Violent street riots are now seen all over the world: hooded men, protesters with helmets, barricades in the streets, fires, sabotage, roads and train tracks cut (Valentín, 2019).

The new protests put an end to the idea of a peaceful revolution that sought, at the time, the vote to decide on independence, and gives way to a reconfiguration of diplomacy to erase any negative image that this could generate. This is reflected in the current Cultural Diplomacy that the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) is implementing, which is explained below.

The Catalan Cultural Paradiplomacy and Protodiplomacy

Saddiki (2009) argues that "the main role of Cultural Diplomacy is to promote transnational dialogue between cultures and nations", and it is under this premise that the case of Catalonia is analyzed from its Local Diplomacy, also known as Paradiplomacy.

The commitment to cultural diplomacy has been the most tangible example of the paradiplomacy of this autonomous community. DIPLOCAT is in charge of connecting, projecting and training Catalonia abroad. More specifically:

Promotes and disseminates the specificity and diversity of Catalan culture, considering culture as one of the main instruments for the country's external projection. The exchange of ideas, information and artistic expressions, the dissemination of cultural references and the recovery of historical links between Catalonia and abroad facilitate mutual understanding and reinforce dialogue between peoples (DIPLOCAT, 2021).

Historically, Catalan paradiplomacy at the beginning of the 21st century is divided into two institutes that were in charge of carrying out cultural policy: the Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries (ICIC) dependent on the Department of Culture, and the Ramon Llull Institute (Zamorano and Rius, 2016).

The first, the ICIC, carries out "policies aimed at supporting the activity of the Catalan audiovisual, performing arts, music and book sectors and their activity abroad" (Zamorano and Rius, 2016). The second, the Ramon Llull Institute, "is an organization that can be assimilated to the traditional institutes of cultural projection through language dissemination" (Zamorano and Rius, 2016), its objective is to project the Catalan language and culture in all its modalities and means of communication. expression. This is how Catalan paradiplomacy has been formed since the 2000s. The most recent is the DIPLOCAT public-private consortium, created in 2012, to “explain Catalonia to the world”, these three pillars being those that make up Catalan Cultural Diplomacy.

As a recent example of internationalization, the Catalan festival of April 23 stands out, which every year celebrates the festival of Sant Jordi throughout the Catalan territory, known as the festival of books and roses, a tradition that has been successfully internationalized. and which is now celebrated in various parts of the world. About this:

DIPLOCAT launched in 2015 a project to internationalize the Sant Jordi festival that it has maintained every year, despite the pandemic, based above all on the #BooksAndRoses campaign on social networks and on a website (DIPLOCAT, 2022) .

The project, in this 2022, registered 331 events in 239 cities in 38 countries, which represents a substantial presence considering the involvement that this festivity had in different parts of the world.

Another example is the cooperation between the Four Motors for Europe, which encompasses the regions of Rhône-Alpes in France, the Lombardy region in Italy, Catalonia in Spain and Baden-Wüttemberg in Germany, created in 1988 with the aim of collaborating in economy, research, as well as art and culture, this because the four regions are considered economic powers (4 motors, 2022). This last example highlights the fact that the Catalan region has had an active international projection for some decades, and takes advantage of its position as a strategic region with a good economic contribution, as well as its disagreement with the central government, to seek its own agenda and international contacts.

In conclusion, Catalonia, as a region with an important contribution to the Spanish national GDP (DIPLOCAT, 2020), with a rich language and culture, has sought to project itself to the world as an attractive territory and has managed to position itself as a relevant international actor, with good investment, tourism , and people interested in learning more about their customs and their language. In doing so, they have formed a proto-diplomacy that encompasses the search for not only autonomy but independence, keeping in mind their own interests totally apart from the central government.

Although, after what happened in 2017 and 2019, the Catalan Government has tried not to promote proto-diplomacy as such, and to align itself more with a Cultural Diplomacy that continues with the agenda of territorial attraction. Despite the fact that Catalonia continues to be related to the independence movement, due to the fact that it is the point of greatest tension with the Central Government, in recent years, DIPLOCAT has sought to focus on other areas of cultural promotion. In the same way, other institutes such as ICIC and the Ramon Llull Institute, focus on a promotion that is not linked to the Catalan independence movement.

Catalonia is a region recognized in Europe not only for its economic and territorial importance, but also for its cultural richness and the range of events and festivities that the region has been able to take advantage of to establish links around the world, increasing its Cultural Diplomacy.