Cuestiones territoriales y secesión: reflexiones comparadas en la democracia de emergencia

Abstract

Territorial Issues and Secession: Comparative Reflections in the Emergency’s Democracy – The COVID-19 crisis has been of a severity unknown since the end of the World War II. The challenge was particularly significant in federal systems, especially were secessionist tensions are present. The potential risk of a systemic crisis of political integration, with an increase of secessionist tensions, was extreme. However, federal systems have managed the pandemic, almost without exception, reinforcing the founding principles of federalism: they have, at the same time, strengthened the self-rule –opening the way to territorial diversity- and the shared rule –ensuring a common ground- in the response to the crisis. Intergovernmental cooperation has played a key role in bringing these two elements together. Thus, the pandemic has not led to an increase in secessionist tensions.