The Galician independence movement ( Galician: ''movemento de independenza galego'') or the Galician separatist movement ( Galician: ''movemento separatista galego'') is a

political movement A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

derived from

Galician nationalism Galician nationalism is a form of nationalism found mostly in Galicia, which asserts that Galicians are a nation and that promotes the cultural unity of Galicians. The political movement referred to as modern Galician nationalism was born at ...

that supports the independence of Galicia and the other Galician-speaking territories outside the

Autonomous Community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

of Galicia, including As Portelas, O Bierzo, and the Eo-Navian lands (which are collectively known as ''

Galicia irredenta ("Unredeemed Galicia") or ("Outer" or "External Galicia"), also spelled as and and also known as or ("Eastern Strip"), is a term used for all Galician language, Galician-speaking territories located outside of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. The ...

'') from

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

History

Initiation

The first realization was the organized political committee Comité Revoluzonareo Arredista Galego, formed by Fuco Gomez in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

in the 1920s, but during the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...

did not have much significance. In

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

there was an association called Sociedade Nazonalista Pondal, active mostly in the 1930s.

Republic of Galicia

In 1931, Galicia declared its independence. The next day, Galicia rejoined

Franco and the 1970s

With the beginning and spread of several mass movements of protests in 1968, including various regions and cities of Spain united against

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

's regime, the Francoist dictatorship of Spain repressed the protests and strikes in the country using

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...

and

state violence State violence is the use of force, intimidation, or oppression by a government against its citizens. State violence can happen through law enforcement or military force, as well as through other branches of government and bureaucracy. State violen ...

. In the 1970s, a sector of the

Galician People's Union The Galician People's Union () is a Galicia (Iberian Peninsula), Galician nationalist and communist political party, and is one of the registered political parties of Spain. The party publishes the magazine ''Terra e Tempo'', and the secretary gene ...

near of

Moncho Reboiras Ramón Marcos Enrique Monserrat (born 4 March 1988), better known by his stage name Moncho, is a Swedish rapper, singer, and songwriter. He competed in Melodifestivalen 2018 with the song "Cuba Libre", and qualified to andra chansen. He is the bro ...

tried to organize a rebel group against the Francoist dictatorship of Spain following the model of

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

, but ended with the murder of Reboiras. In 1978, a sector of the

was split, constituting first the Galician People's Union-Proletarian Line and later the

Galician Party of the Proletariat The Galician Party of the Proletariat (PGP) was a party galician independentist and Marxist-Leninist party formed in March 1978, as a continuation of Galician People's Union-Proletarian Line, a split of the original Galician People's Union. Th ...

, with secessionist character.

Galician independentism at present

In 1986 the

Communist Party of National Liberation Communist Party of National Liberation (in Galician language, Galician: ''Partido Comunista de Liberación Nacional'') was a separatist political party in Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. PCLN was founded on 25 July 1986 by the 22 March Communist C ...

, a secessionist splinter of the

, was expelled from the BNG for having supported the candidacy of

Herri Batasuna Herri Batasuna (; ; HB) was a Far-left politics, far-left Basque nationalist coalition in Spain. It was founded in 1978 and defined itself as abertzale left, abertzale, left-wing, socialism, socialist, and supported the independence of the Basque ...

during the

Elections to the European Parliament Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...

. Beside the Galiza Ceive-OLN (the new name of the organization) and several secessionist groups, they formed the

Galician People's Front The Galician People's Front () is a Galicia (Spain), Galician political organization with a socialist and Galician independence, independentist ideology. History After the Galician People's Union (UPG) accepted the participation of the Bloque Nac ...

the following year, which has been the main Galician secessionist organization since then. In that context appeared the Exército Guerrilheiro do Povo Galego Ceive, which carried out 90 terrorist actions in six years, the last one on 13 of September, 1991. As consequence two activists, a civil guard and a girl died. Several dozens of supposed members were arrested. Ten members of Assembleia da Mocidade Independentista and other groups were held in 2005 and two of them were strongly suspected of having placed a bomb in an automatic cash dispenser in

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

. That same year the existence of a group named Resistência Galega, which has claimed responsibility for several bomb attacks, was made public. The BNG, the major nationalist/secessionist political party, has 25 of the 75 seats in the

Galician Parliament The Parliament of Galicia () is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. It is formed by 75 deputies (). Deputies are elected every four years in ordinary period, or extraordinarily upon dissolution and call o ...

Pro-independence public figures

* Xose Manuel Beiras, politician. *

Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín (Ourense, 7 August 1938) is a Galician writer and poet and is widely considered the highest representative of contemporary Galician literature. A doctor in philology, he studied philosophy at the University of Santia ...

, writer, candidate to the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

of Literature in 1999, ex-president of the

Royal Galician Academy The Royal Galician Academy (, RAG) is an institution dedicated to the study of Galician culture and especially the Galician language; it promulgates norms of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary and works to promote the language. The Academy is bas ...

and member of the

. *

José Ignacio Fernández Palacios José Ignacio Fernández Palacios (born 3 February 1967), known as Nacho, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a left-back. His entire career was associated to Celta and Compostela. He appeared in 198 La Liga matches over ...

, ex-football player. *

Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao Alfonso Daniel Manuel Rodríguez Castelao (30 January 1886 – 7 January 1950), commonly known as Castelao, was a Galician politician, writer, painter and doctor. He is one of the fathers of Galician nationalism, promoting Galician ident ...

, Galician politician, writer, painter and doctor. *

Camilo Nogueira Román Camilo Nogueira Román (born 22 November 1936) is a Spanish politician and engineer. He was a Member of the European Parliament between 1999 and 2004. He was part of the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) and the European Free Alliance, Democratic ...

, politician. *

Rosalia de Castro Rosalia or Rosalía (with diacritic) may refer to: Persons * Rosalia (given name) * Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), the patron saint of Palermo in Italy * Rosalía (born 1992), Spanish singer Places * 314 Rosalia, an asteroid * Rosalia, Pisidia, ...

, Galician romanticist writer and poet. * Ricardo Carvalho Calero, father of the reintegrationist movement, founder of the Galician Association of Language and writer. *

Uxío Novoneyra Eugenio Novo Neira, known as Uxío Novoneyra ( Parada de Moreda, Courel, 19 January 1930 – Santiago de Compostela, 30 October 1999), was a Galician poet, journalist and writer of children's literature from Galicia, Spain. He was born in ...

, poet, journalist and writer of children's literature. * Teresa Moure, writer and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. She lectures in Linguistics at the University of Santiago de Compostela. *

Lois Pereiro Luis Ángel Sánchez Pereiro alias Lois Pereiro (born Monforte de Lemos, February 16, 1958-died La Coruña, May 24, 1996) was a Spanish poet and writer. Galician Literature Day was dedicated to him in 2011. Biography He was born in Monforte d ...

, poet. *

Rafa Villar Rafa Villar ( Cee, Galicia, 1968 - ) is a Galician writer noted especially in the field of poetry. He has a degree in Galician-Portuguese Philology from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, and works in the linguistic normalization service ...

, writer, activist of the

Nunca Máis Francisco Rodrigues da Silva (* 1983) also known as "Nunca" is a Brazilian graffiti who uses Native Brazilian themes in his art. His artist name "Nunca" means "Never" in Portuguese. Career Born in São Paulo, Nunca began his career at the age of ...

movement and town councillor in

. *

Milladoiro Milladoiro (English: "billionaire") is a traditional Celtic-Galician music group that records and performs music with roots in Galicia, Spain. Members of the group have also composed and recorded their own pieces, in the style of Galician music. ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

and

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celts (modern), Celtic people of Northwestern Europe (the modern Celtic nations). It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and ...

band from

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

. * Ricardo Flores Peres, political activist.