Friday, September 30, 2005

The Catalan Nation

The Catalan parliament in Barcelona just voted for autonomy. I don't know all the details yet, but it appears that the regional legislators gave up on reforms of the national government that would lead to decentralization. Catalonia is one of several Spanish regions with a strong identity. However, it has not had the history of radicalism of the Basque. The statutes that were voted now refer to Catalonia as a nation, not a nationality.

ETA: This comes from a commentary in Madrid's La Gaceta (in Googl-English):
Thus, the new Statute is not a reform of the effective one but that breaks with the same one. But, so that '? What prevents or has prevented, until the moment, to the present one to establish a frame of improvement of competitions, organization and financing for Catalonia? The present Statute is not worth because the objective is another one: to change the original sovereignty of the citizens and to make of Catalonia an independent State, with international legal character. The only one which it has that expressed it clear has been ERC.

The title first of the new Statute not only defines to Catalonia like a nation, but that also defines Spain like a nation of nations, skipping doubly the Constitution of 1978. With it, the possession of the popular sovereignty, that now resides in all the Spaniards, to only one part of the citizens is transferred. Soon, that the rest is grasped as it can.

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