Nationalia - Peoples and nations today: Occitania

Nationalia - Peoples and nations today: Occitania: "Peoples and nations today: Occitania

07/11/2008

DOSSIER. Extending to twice the area of Hungary, with more inhabitants than Greece, Occitania is the largest stateless nation in Western Europe. Centuries as an undervalued minority have pressured this nation to assimilate and have converted a culture that was once a reference point into one on the brink of disappearing. Despite this, Occitania is a living reality, and considering advanced made in the Val d’Aran and other areas within its territory, a revival of its language and identity is possible.

Occitania today
The identity of the Occitan people is tightly linked to their language, much more so than is there political representation, for example. Occitan is spoken by between one and four million people, who are spread out mostly in the Val d'Aran in Catalonia, the southern third of the French state, the alpine valleys of Piemont, and the north of the Italian state and in Monaco. That said, the language is only entirely official in the Val d'Aran (in fact, it is official in the whole of Catalonia), while in Italia it enjoys legal recognition, generic protection in France, and no recognition at all in Monaco. More sociolinguistic information at Linguamón and at Mercator.

At the political level, the main parties with a presence in institutions and with a certain degree of Occitan national-or regional, as the case may be-consciousness are found in the Val d'Aran with Unity of Aran (Unitat d'Aran) and Aranese Democratic Convergence (Convergència Democràtica Aranesa). These are the two majority parties of the General Council (Conselh Generau), with six seats each, and they tend toward a politics of moderate autonomy, although in practice they often go along with Catalan political dynamics owing to their closeness to the Socialist Party of Catalonia in the first case and Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya) in the second.

But it is in the French state that the main efforts at expressing an authentic Occitan national will have been found, and it is there that getting representation in the regional government has been most difficult. Of the groups that are still active, there is the Occitan Party (Partit Occitan), which defines itself as seeking autonomy and has a few seats around the territory. It is also a member of the European Free Alliance and the Federation of Associated Regions and Peoples of France (Fédération Régions et Peuples Solidaires ).

On the other hand, the historic party of Occitan nationalism is the Occitan National Party (Partit de la Nacion Occitana), founded in 1959 in Nice on Marxist and independentist principals, but which has never achieved a presence in any institutions because for many years the party did not want to field any candidates. Other important movements are the Anaram au Patac, which represents the revolutionary independentist left, and the Initiative for Occitania (Iniciativa per Occitània), a 'political, cultural and social laboratory for the national emancipation of Occitania.'

There is a wider field of organizations and groups that defend the Occitan language and culture. The Institute of Occitan Studies (Institut d'Estudis Occitans), founded in 1945, is the main academic organization for the normalization of the language. The Chambra d'Oc is also quite active. This group works toward a linguistic and cultural revival in the western valleys of Piemont and took the lead in the recent Occitania on Foot (Occitània a Pè) campaign, a walk that extended across the 1,300 kilometers that separate Vinai in Piemont from Vielha in the Val d'Aran. Espaci Occitan, Paratge and Occitania.it are also worth a look. The historic proximity between Occitania and the Catalan Countries is reflected by the group Circle of Occitan-Catalan Union (Cercle d'Agermanament Occitano-català), and various activities across the territory.

In the area of education, there is the Regional Center for the Teaching of Occitan (Centre Regionau per l'Ensenhament de l'Occitan) as well as the Calandretas association, a network of French-Occitan bilingual schools, inspired by other bilingual experiences or linguistics immersion programs as practiced in the galescolas of Galicia, the bressolas of Northern Catalonia or the Diwan of Brittany.

Occitània/Occitania

General information
Population: 15.500.000 inhabitants (2006)
Area: 190.000 km2
Institutions: Conselh Generau d'Aran
State administration: France, Italy, Spain and Monaco
Major cities: Marselha, Tolosa, Montpelhièr, Pau and Baiona
Territorial language: Occitan
Official language: French, Italian, Catalan, Spanish and Occitan
Major religion: Christianity (Catholicism)

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