%0 Journal Article
%A Díez García, Rubén
%T Mirroring persistent rival discourses in Spain. What do large-scale mobilizations tell us about the country’s main political cleavage?
%D 2025
%@ 1744-8689
%@ 1744-8697
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/124050
%X This article analyses the most prominent mobilizations led by civil society organizations, activist networks, and parties in Spain from 1996 to 2020. The article examines 235 large-scale mobilizations to explore how civil society actors have shaped and reflected persistent sociopolitical cleavages. Using protest event analysis and a CHAID-based classification model, it identifies terrorism and nationalism as key recurring issues. These mobilizations reveal long-term tensions rooted in Spain’s democratic transition, with victims’ associations, the 15M/Indignados movement, and Catalan secessionism illustrating the evolution of civic culture and civil institutions. Since the end of ETA terrorism in 2011, nationalist claims have sustained a polarised public sphere, exposing the enduring cleavage around Spain’s constitutional national identity.
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