Catalonia and Euskadi are the two communities where partisan polarization is lessaccording to a survey by the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP) and the Esade Center for Economic Policies (EsadeEcPol). Madrid, on the other hand, is the Spanish territory where this animosity between supporters of one group and anothers policies reaches greater heights.
That does not mean that Catalonia is a haven of political peace. According to the same study, it is the community in which the assessment of coexistence is lowest in its three dimensions: local, regional and national. According to the surveycoexistence generally has a positive assessment in all dimensions and territories, although with significant differences according to level: from 7.22 in the case of neighbourhood/municipality and 7.02 in that of autonomous community, in the upper extreme, to 5.85 in the whole of Spain, in the Lower end. The territory with the worst assessment of coexistence in these three dimensions is Catalonia, although with moderate differences compared to the national average.
Trust in institutions is generally low: none of the administrations achieves an approval in citizen confidence. Local governments and the European Union obtain a better rating than the central government and regional governments. In particular, the central government elicits the worst evaluations: it is the only level of administration with a fail in all the regions surveyed. By Autonomous Communities, Catalonia is the territory with the least institutional trust in administrations at all levels and the one that gives the worst grade to its autonomous government (4.1), while the Basque Country gives the best (5.37).
“The lack of trust in them, together with the strong rejection generated by the parties outside their own, and the specific capacity of the institutions that articulate the territorial organization to exert pressure, concentrate the risk for the normal democratic functioning”, underlines the report on the survey.
The ‘Survey on polarization and coexistence in Spain’, consulted by Europa Press, has concluded that parties are one of the main sources of polarization in Spainwhich has a more cohesive society “than public debate suggests”.
Dissent and broad consensus
The issues that generate the greatest polarization are the assessment of the Transition and the territorial organization of the State, while there are “broad cross-cutting consensuses on gender equality” and regarding the redistribution of wealth through taxes.
The study has detected that “the most polarizing elements in public debate” -such as belonging to an autonomous community, gender or social class- barely define personal identity.
Appearance “more related to personal identity” is the languagewhich is ‘quite’ or ‘very important’ for 35% of those surveyed, with no significant differences between the different autonomous communities.
The inhabitants of Catalonia and the Basque Country are the ones who are “more against recentralization and in favor of decentralization”and they are the communities with the least polarization, together with the Valencian Community.
The autonomous communities “where partisan polarization is highest according to the weighted index are Madrid, Extremadura and Andalusia.”