Andalusian nationalism

In 1883, an assembly gathered at Antequera drafted a constitution styling Andalusia as an autonomous republic inside a federal state (República Andaluza o Estado libre o autónomo de Andalucía, in Spanish).

As the leading figure of Andalusian nationalism, Infante gave the movement a distinct agrarian socialist character, as he sought to break the power of landowners in Andalusia.

[11] Andalusian nationalism was revived when Alianza Socialista de Andalucía or ASA (Socialist Alliance of Andalusia) was founded in 1971, at the last period of Francoism in Spain.

This followed a popular outcry in Andalusia for its own right to autonomy, with a total of over a million and a half people demonstrating in the streets of most Andalusian towns and cities on 4 December 1977, while the constitution was still being drafted.

However the start of the Civil War in July and the assassination of Infante by Franco's rebels in August of the same year put an end to the autonomist project for Andalusia.

This caused a great deal of indignation at the time and fired the fuse of a popular campaign which would lead the region seeking autonomy under the vía rápida (fast route) proposed for the historic nationalities by article 151 of the Spanish constitution.

[14] In response to this situation, where a clear majority of voters wished for autonomy to be granted to the region but fell short of the actual requirements of the chosen autonomy process, the Spanish Congress of Deputies passed "Ley 13/1980" allowing for the substitution of the approval by the deputies and senators of Almeria province instead the required approval of an absolute majority of the voters of the province.

This has led to severe criticism by the Andalusist Party and other political forces for falling short of the steps taken in the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, where this territory defined itself as a Nation.