Catalan independence and the crisis of sovereignty

The 1-O and the unilateral declaration of independence questioned the Spanish state and legislation as ultimate authority. The reaction of the Spanish state unveiled its limitation and incapacity to offer a solution by either tightening legislation or shy attempts to dialogue. Sovereignty cannot be reduced to national or state sovereignty and several meanings of sovereignty are at stake. Whilst internal sovereignty has been challenged, external sovereignty has generally been endorsed by foreign actors, mainly the EU. As alternatives, people’s sovereignty and shared sovereignty search for other ways of governing by opposing the Spanish state, or by defending multilevel sovereignty which does not rely exclusively on the state. Finally, the implementation of the state of emergency as response to the COVID-19 pandemic provoked new tensions within the Spanish state and showed that the crisis of sovereignty is far from being solved.