Politics of Catalonia
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The first Catalan constitutions are of the Corts of Barcelona from 1283. The last ones were promulgated by the court of 1702. The compilations of the constitutions and other rights of Catalonia followed the Roman tradition of the Codex.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, Catalonia was one of the main centres of Spanish industrialisation.
The struggle between the Barcelonese conservative bourgeoisie and the working class, often immigrants from the rest of Spain, dominated Catalan politics.
Catalan nationalist and federalist movements arose in the nineteenth century, and when the Second Republic was declared in 1931, Catalonia became an autonomous region. Following the fall of the Second Republic after the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, the authoritarian dictatorship of General Francisco Franco annulled Catalonia's autonomy statute and prohibited any public usage, official promotion or recognition of the Catalan language. Its private everyday use was never officially proscribed by law but, due to the problems which its use could bring, it was rarely heard outside private homes. During the last decade of Franco's rule, there was a resurgence of nationalist sentiment in Catalonia as in the other 'historic' region of the Basque provinces.
Following Franco's death in 1975 and the restoration of full democracy by 1978, Catalonia regained its status as one of the 17 autonomous communities within Spain. The Catalan nationalist leader Jordi Pujol came to power in the first regional elections in 1980 and his two-party coalition, Convergence and Unity (Convergència i Unió or CiU), won successive elections for 23 years.
Terra Lliure ("Free Land"), which was essentially a terrorist group, sought to achieve independence through violence against Spanish interests and the wider population, but it never achieved the infamy or reach of the Basque terrorist organisatoin ETA, and disbanded after negotiations with the national government.
Following the 1996 national elections in Spain, and despite his long track-record as a Catalan nationalist (especially during the Franco era), Pujol surprised many by lending CiU's support to the minority government formed by the rightwing People's Party (Partido Popular or PP) led by José María Aznar. Some nationalist factions became increasingly dissatisfied with Pujol's rule, especially the ERC. At the same time, the Party of Catalan Socialists (Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya or PSC), a sister-party of Spain's main socialist party (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol or PSOE) based in the industrial heartland of Barcelona, began to enjoy renewed electoral popularity.
One of the 'fault-lines' in contemporary Catalan politics arises from the fact that Barcelona, with its strong metropolitan economy, continues to attract migrants from all over Spain and Latin America, and indeed from around the world. As a result, Spanish remains the language spoken by a significant portion of Barcelona's inhabitants, particularly in working-class areas. By contrast, Catalan remains the predominant language in middle-class and upper-class urban areas, as well as among the region's rural population. The PSC has to some extent become the party of working class migrants from all over Spain. In any case, while Catalan has undoubtedly experienced a spectacular revival since the death of Franco, the dominant presence of Spanish-speakers will continue to make universal or exclusive use of Catalan impossible. Recently there has been an influx of African and East European immigrants, but this has not yet influenced the political scene, even though the demographic impact of immigration can clearly be seen on the streets.
At the regional elections held on November 16, 2003, at which Pujol retired, the combined parties of the left defeated the CiU for the first time and Pasqual Maragall i Mira became President of the Generalitat. Maragall's Socialists, however, actually lost seats: the big winners were the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya or ERC), which favours full Catalan independence, and the Greens. While PSC maintained the post of President of the Generalitat (Maragall), ERC nominated the conseller primer (prime minister) — Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira and after Josep Bargalló i Valls. Maragall's government was a somewhat uneasy coalition between the PSC, the ERC, and the ICV.
After the 2006 election, Convergència i Unió increased its presence in the parliament, but not enough to beat the left-wing coalition (PSC+ERC+ICV) that could repeat a similar government but this time with José Montilla Aguilera as the President of the Generalitat.
[edit] Current political issues
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Unlike the autonomous communities of Navarre and the Basque Country, Catalonia lacks its own tax system; thus the economic financing of the regional administration depends almost entirely on funds raised by national-government taxation and budgeted to Catalonia. This has become a mainstream issue, particularly as the proposed reform of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy is currently the subject of intense political debate at regional and national level. From an economic perspective, the regional government aims to achieve a high degree of fiscal autonomy (based on the argument that the region pays in more to the national Spanish coffers than it receives).
There was a significant political controversy in Spain as a result of the Catalan parliament's proposed draft of a replacement Autonomy Statute (supported by some 90% of the parliament's elected deputies) which sought to define Catalonia as a 'nation'[1]. Article 2 of the 1978 Spanish Constitution states that the constitution "is based in the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation (Nación)" while also referring to the "right to autonomy of the nationalities and regions (nacionalidades y regiones)". These nationalities and regions are left unnamed in the Constitution. [2] The controversy centered on whether referring to any Autonomous Community of Spain as a "nation" may go against Article 2 and whether the Catalan claim to be a nación rather than a nacionalidad had separatist overtones subversive of the "indissoluble unity" of Spain. There was also a high degree of controversy about the control of all taxes, and a parallel judicial system. In the end, a significantly watered-down version was approved by the parliament in Madrid, although the political debate on most of the key points continues.
[edit] Parties
- CiU — Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Unity) - federation
- ERC — Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia)
- ICV-EUiA — Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds – Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (Green Initiative for Catalonia-Left United Alternative)
- PP — Partit Popular (People's Party)
- PSC-PSOE — Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya-Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Socialist Party of Catalonia-Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)
- Ciutadans - Partido de la Ciudadanía — also known as Ciutadans de Catalunya (Citizens-Party of the Citizenship aka Citizens of Catalonia)
[edit] Summary of votes and seats
Votes and seats after the 1 November 2006 elections, compared with those won at the 2003 election.
Voters: 5,212,444 Voting: 2,959,027 56.77% Invalid votes: 13,324 0.45% Valid votes: 2,945,703 99.54% ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Party Votes % Seats ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Convergència i Unió 928,511 31.52 (+0.58) 48 (+2) Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya-CpC 789,767 26.81 (-4.35) 37 (-5) Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya 414,067 14.06 (-2.38) 21 (-2) Partit Popular 313,479 10.64 (-1.25) 14 (-1) Iniciativa Verds-Esquerra Alternativa 281,474 9.56 (+2.28) 12 (+3) Ciutadans - Partido de la Ciudadanía 89,567 3.04 (+3.04) 3 (+3) Others 68,813 2.33 - Blank 60,025 2.03 - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 2,945,703 135 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
