Barcelona readers following football and identity politics may have seen the row over Athletic Club’s new kit, which includes a small map of Euskal Herria on the back of the neck. The design is part of the club’s “Gure Nortasuna”, or “Our Identity”, collection.
The map shows the seven territories of the Basque nation, including areas outside Spain. That has prompted strong criticism from Spanish nationalist parties, with the Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) threatening legal action, the Partido Popular expressing indignation, and Vox calling for the Spanish Football Federation to sanction Athletic Club.
The map is only a few centimetres wide and is barely visible from the stands, but it has still become a political flashpoint. It uses the colours of the Ikurriña, the Basque flag, and seven red stripes to represent the seven historical territories.
According to the original report from VilaWeb, the design also includes Iparralde, the Basque Country in France, and Navarre. The article argues that this challenges the constitutional idea of national unity set out in Article 2 of the 1978 Spanish Constitution.
The reaction has also reopened a wider debate about how national identities are treated across state borders. The article contrasts the way Spanish identity is often framed as spanning the world with the way Basque and Catalan identities are expected to stay within administrative borders.
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