No matter how many sparks it sparks in Spanish politics, independence has been losing support in Catalonia for years in an unstoppable trend. And the latest survey by the Center d'Estudis d'Opinió (CEO) provides less than optimistic data for the future of the procés cause: generation Z, aged 16 to 26, is inclined towards Catalonia being an autonomous community rather than an independent state. The Zs show more interest in feminism, environmentalism and, especially, labor rights or housing, than in independence.
The survey on generations and political participation of the CEO, released on Thursday, indicates that, in fact, the preference for independence as a formula in the Catalonia-Spain relationship is limited to the boomer generations (from 59 to 77 years old) and X (from 43 to 58 years old). Those over 78 years old and the youngest – the Z and the millennials (from 27 to 42 years old) – are in favor of autonomy.
In terms of ideology, the survey confirms that Catalonia is rather left-wing, except for those over 78 years of age, who are in the center. And a fact that is not new: the extreme right is penetrating among the youngest.
“It doesn't surprise me that the boomers and the X are the ones who believe the most in independence, they are the ones who forged the process. Young people want stability. They are rebels, but they have uncertainty and need routines,” says political scientist Ana Salazar, director of Idus3 Strategy.
Salazar emphasizes that the interviews were carried out from May 2 to July 29, in the middle of the electoral period, which makes society more mobilized. However, the results fit, he points out, with the ideological positioning of generations. “Older people tend not to want changes. It is difficult for them to assimilate them, and particularly if they are relative to the established order,” he emphasizes, while in the boomers and the X, the preference for independence has more to do, in his opinion, with the will for change.
“But the fact that the extreme right has a gateway among the youngest, even if it is a minority, because they vote to the left, should worry us as a society, we have an unprotected generation,” Salazar emphasizes.
For Jordi Mir, professor of moral and political philosophy at the UPF, “it is understandable that a part of young people, who are connecting with politics at a time of emergence of far-right discourse, position themselves in favor, just as older generations and that their influence is translated into the parliamentary and media arc.”
The Z, Mir agrees, want more stability. “Job and life insecurity affects several generations, but young people have difficulties becoming independent, they need to improve their conditions,” he adds.
The CEO incorporates three items to measure the psychological trait of the “need for chaos”, associated with behaviors such as spreading rumors and hostile information on the networks. “Sometimes I have a fantasy of a natural disaster…” says a question that raises the possibility of starting over. The Zs are the most in favor, and the boomers are the least. “Sympathy for chaos is linked to the fact that the youngest want stability, in the current model there is no way out and they would want to start from scratch,” says Mir.
The sociologist Josep Maria Antentas agrees that “the young generation since 2008 has only known chain crises, they have permanent dissatisfaction.” And, unlike the generations that lived through the changes of the previous decade, the 15-M, the procés, “they have not had the great epic battles, but only the disappointments. They feel a certain demoralization, which is not indolence but rather the awareness that these are problems that they cannot solve,” he adds. Antentas links it to feelings about climate change, which the survey also investigates. “Eco-anxiety is a phenomenon among young people, the idea that it is a disaster and they will have to live through it,” he says. But in the survey, those who suffer the most from this are the boomers. Antentas clarifies: “They suffer for their children and grandchildren.”
