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This paper analyses the increasing use of the concept of subnational identity, understood as a peculiar (to some extent) category that is opposed to the State or federal identity. References to it are included in the second-generation Italian (subnational) fundamental charters (Statuti) and Spanish Estatutos de autonomia. After an overview of the identity clauses contained in the sub-national constitutions, we will move to analyse the first cases of judicial relevance of these clauses when they are invoked before national courts, and test whether and how these subnational identity provisions could be interpreted in a manner consistent with the national constitution.

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Recently, constitutional courts have come under siege, with scholars criticising them for their abuse of the national (or, according to another terminology, constitutional 1) identity argument. In this sense, Halmai 2 has also blamed the German Bundesverfassungsgericht for providing other constitutional courts (namely the Hungarian one) with a problematic series of techniques by provoking, in this way, a worrying (even dangerous, in his opinion) escalation of constitutional conflict. Moreover, constitutional pluralists have been accused of offering arguments to autocrats and populists to justify violations of the values set out in Article 2. 3 Against this background, the aim of this work is to reflect