Pablo Picasso’s Guernica is probably the most well known painting of the 20th century, and has become a universal symbol of the horrors of war. But it has also been the subject of renewed controversy in recent weeks in Spain - over a yet another request by the Basque government for the painting to be displayed at least temporarily in Bilbao. The current request comes ahead of the 90th anniversary of the bombing that the painting evokes - when during the Civil War the Nazi Condor Legion unleashed a relentless aerial assault on the Basque town.

The long-running debate over moving the painting to the Basque Country centres on competing claims, with Basque sovereignists arguing that it should be displayed in the same location as the events it commemorates, against Spanish government’s insistence it remain at Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid for reasons of conservation and national heritage. Today on Sobremesa, we discuss the controversy and the relationship between the work’s power and universality and the concrete, historical atrocity inflicted on Gernika the town.

To do so Eoghan is joined by Brittany Kennnedy, Senior Professor of Practice at Tulane University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Brittany is the author of Between Distant Modernities: Performing Exceptionality in Francoist Spain and the Jim Crow South.

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With the announcement from deputy prime minister Yolanda Diaz that she would not be standing as a candidate in next year’s general election, Spain’s radical left currently looks leaderless and increasingly fragmented.

In this context, attention has turned towards Gabriel Rufian as a potential new left-wing figurehead. Yet there is one major issue: Rufian, a charismatic,working class Catalan MP is also pro-independence. Indeed, eight years ago he was one of the most visible faces in the Spanish parliament representing the attempted unilateral push for Catalan independence.

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On this episode Alan is joined by Gregorio Alonso, Associate Professor in Hispanic History at the University of Leeds. We explore the 1812 Cádiz Constitution, a landmark document born in a time of siege and upheaval.

Gregorio takes us through the tensions between liberalism and Catholicism, the shaping of Hispanidad, and how these ideas influenced Spain and the loss of its empire. This conversation uncovers how faith, freedom, and imperial identity collide in one of Spain’s most fascinating historical documents .

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