Is Catalan Independence Movement left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Catalan Independence Movement scores −02 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −04. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Catalan Independence Movement authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Catalan Independence Movement scores −02. Held a referendum in 2017 that Spanish courts ruled illegal; its leaders were imprisoned or fled, and later amnestied.

Atlas / Organisations / Catalan Independence Movement

Catalan Independence Movement

Procés · 2010– · Catalonia, Spain · Civic Nationalist · Movement · coding confidence medium

−02ECcollective

−04CUpluralist

−02AUpluralist

−08SClocal

+01IDascriptive

+02CHcoercive

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Self-determination for Catalonia after a constitutional court struck down the autonomy statute its voters had approved.

Economic model

A coalition spanning market liberals and anti-capitalists, held together by the constitutional question alone.

Organisation of powers

Held a referendum in 2017 that Spanish courts ruled illegal; its leaders were imprisoned or fled, and later amnestied.

Reading note

Included as the counter-case to Scotland: the same demand, pursued outside an agreed legal route, with a very different outcome.

Check a claim about Catalan Independence Movement. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −02

Coded −2: a coalition spanning market liberals and anti-capitalists.

ScholarshipThe pro-independence bloc has included both the centre-right PDeCAT tradition and the anti-capitalist CUP.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −04

Coded −4: socially liberal across the coalition.

Documented act or statuteCatalonia legislated on gender violence and LGBT rights ahead of Spanish national law.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −02

Coded −2: a referendum held against a constitutional court ruling.

Documented act or statuteThe 2017 referendum was suspended by the constitutional court and held anyway.

SC · Scale of decision · scored −08

Coded −8: separation from the Spanish state as the demand.

Documented act or statuteThe 2010 ruling striking down parts of the autonomy statute, which Catalan voters had approved, is the movement's origin point.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +01

Coded +1: a linguistic and civic definition rather than an ancestral one.

ScholarshipIndependence organisations have explicitly included Spanish-speaking and immigrant-origin residents.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +02

Coded +2: mass mobilisation and a unilateral declaration, without violence.

Documented act or statuteNine leaders were sentenced for sedition in 2019 and amnestied in 2024.

Where it came from, and what came after

succeededScottish National Party
The same demand pursued through an agreed legal route and outside one.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Spain

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Catalan Independence Movement. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/catalanindep/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.