Yes but due to that they're inevitably tied to royalism and unionism and address those very sentiments among the Catalan population which leads to people with such a mindset to be drawn more to Espanyol than to Barça. Creating such an identity is usually a matter of decades and while Espanyol has slowly built a rather pro-Spain identity, FC Barcelona did the complete opposite by including Catalan symbols in their crest, resisting several Spanish dictatorships and even fighting against the Francoists during the civil war, and due to their struggle under the Francoist regime.
The Basque situation (Athletic and Sociedad) is a similar one but as far as I'm concerned, Sociedad is not quite as unionist as Espanyol.
Thanks for the input. Yes I agree, being a royal club might be one of the reason why Espanyol in the end leans towards Spanish Nationalist sentiments, while Barca has become the Catalan flag bearer, however I doubt that is the main reason. I do think actually this happens only by chance, as a result of both clubs being forced to follow the flow of Spanish modern history. The reason I say this is because not all royally blessed clubs ended being a Spanish nationalist clubs. Take the Seville pair for example, Real Betis vs Sevilla. I don't think the rivalry revolves any nationalist ideals. Rather they represent two sets of population in the city. Based on Morbo, Real Betis is actually the working class club, while Sevilla is viewed as the club of aristocrats. That seem inconsistent compared to the Royal-Non Royal clubs theory don't you think?
Oh, and you've given the Basques pairs as example. As far as I know Real Sociedad fans are no different than Athletic fans. They all are Basques and they are not too keen with the Spanish Nationalism ideals too. The policies of the clubs differs though, as Athletic being the more extreme of the pair.
KUTGW!
