Catalonia Nears Autonomy From Spain

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/27/AR2006012701508_2.html

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Catalonia Nears Autonomy From Spain

Supporters of the idea said it was a matter of good governance and common sense. "We're moving toward a system like in the United States, where a person is a citizen of a state and of the country, too," said Jose Lopez, 52, a news vendor in Barcelona "It's not going to break up the country."

"The closer you are to the people, the better you understand and govern them," said Giordi Lopez, 40, an employee trainer in Barcelona.

"We want the right to administer our money, and the more the better," said Angela Dias, 66, a shopper on Barcelona's Portal de l'Angel pedestrian boulevard.

Fernando Moraleda, the government's top spokesman, denied that Zapatero was pandering to fringe parties to keep his coalition afloat. The spokesman noted that other regions were also exploring autonomy bills, including Andalusia in the south, Galicia in the far northwest, and Valencia along the central Mediterranean coast.

Spain's 17 official regions were created when the newly democratic country passed its constitution in 1978.
During Franco's reign, power was tightly centralized in Madrid, and restrictions against regional languages such as Catalan and Basque were enacted to cement the unity of the state.

"The country has functioned better with decentralization, and we're trying to give a new push to a society that has changed," Moraleda said. "We share a common project that will improve the more we recognize the differences that unite us."

A central aim of the proposal is to keep more Catalan tax revenue at home, based on studies showing that the region sends between 7 and 9 percent more tax revenue to Madrid every year than it receives from the government in the form of services.

"We need more infrastructure and investment in our own region," said Pilar Dellunde, a member of the Catalonia legislature from the separatist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party that helped draft the bill. "If we don't put more coal in this locomotive, the whole of Spain will suffer."

According to the 177-page bill, the goal is to fulfill a "dream of a Catalonia with no impediments of any nature to the free and full interdependence that all nations today require . . . compatible with the development of a pluri-national state."

The proposal calls for Catalan to be the official and "preferential" language of Catalonia, alongside Castilian Spanish. It declares that Catalonia will be responsible for collecting all taxes levied in the region, have its own judiciary, and have the authority to change laws passed by the parliament in Madrid.

Initially, Catalan officials wanted to retain about 90 percent of the taxes collected in the region, but it appears now that they will keep about 50 percent.

A key sticking point remains whether the law will refer to Catalonia as a "nation," or to Catalonian "nationality."
"It's not a question of independence or not -- we have a language, a history, and a special corpus of law," said Dellunde, the legislator. "We want a different state, more democratic, a real pluralistic state that recognizes its diversity. We are different in some ways, and we want a state that's democratic enough to recognize it."

Special correspondent Pamela Rolfe contributed to this report.