Spanish Media and the EU Referendum 2016: The Assault on an Enlightened Project

The amount of coverage of the 2016 EU referendum in the Spanish media was remarkable. This is not surprising as Brexit was seen as a threat to a European project celebrated for having delivered political, social and economic benefits to Spain in consonance with the values of the European Enlightenment of universal reality-based rationality. However, one of the most salient factors in the Spanish media coverage is related to the internal political life of the country, and, as a result, there was no homogeneous Spanish view. Instead, a range of ideologically grounded interpretations was produced in which the independence of Catalonia featured as highly as the future of the European Union.