The
independence declaration by Catalonia’s regional Parliament has
escalated a longstanding confrontation with the central government of
Spain.
The
government in Madrid moved quickly to crush the Catalan secession
movement as a violation of the Spanish Constitution and to strip the
restive region — at least temporarily — of most of its autonomous
powers.
The
fast-moving events raised new worries about possible repercussions
among the other regions of Spain that have varying degrees of autonomy.
More broadly, the Catalan leaders’ declaration put into question the
political contiguity of Spain, which has the fifth-biggest economy in
the European Union.
Here are some answers to questions about Spain’s autonomous regions:
What are the origins of Spain’s regions?
Spain
has 17 autonomous communities, making it a decentralized country, but
not a federal state. Most of the regions have long had their own
traditions and histories, but some have more recent and political roots.
Spain’s
prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, often refers to his country as “the
oldest nation in Europe.” That view is based on the 15th-century
political union that resulted from the wedding of Isabella of Castile
and Ferdinand II, the monarch of Aragón, whose kingdom included
Catalonia.
Catalans
commemorate as their national day a 1714 defeat at the end of the War
of the Spanish Succession, when Barcelona was captured by the troops of
Philip V, the first Bourbon monarch of Spain. Philip cracked down on
Catalans and destroyed part of Barcelona.
“Later
on, nation-building initiatives in Spain have been designed and
implemented not only to keep the country together as one nation, but
also to consolidate a hierarchical system of government thought to
ensure that both Madrid and Castilian language and cultural values would
play a prominent and almost exclusive role in shaping the country,”
said Elisa Martí-López, a history professor at Northwestern University.
How has Spain’s modern Constitution enshrined the idea of autonomy?
When
a new Constitution came into force in 1978, three years after the death
of the dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, its framers sought to recognize
the portions of the country with distinct cultural heritage.
But they also affirmed that there would be no sovereignty but that of the Spanish nation.
Even
before the Constitution was enshrined, Catalonia got back some of the
autonomy it lost in the civil war of the 1930s, as part of a political
deal brokered by politicians in Madrid to ensure that Catalans would
embrace Spain’s political structure.
In
fact, Adolfo Suárez, who became Spain’s conservative prime minister,
restored the Generalitat, the regional government of Catalonia, as the
only institution of the Spanish Second Republic of the 1930s to be
reinstated after Franco’s dictatorship.
In
1981, Spain’s main parties agreed to divide the country into 19
regions, including two city enclaves in northern Africa, Ceuta and
Melilla. By 1995, each region had drawn up its own statute of autonomy.
“The
Constitution was seen as an instrument of transition and peace that in
the first years could also create greater social linkage and economic
development,” said Miguel Herrero de Miñón, one of the seven founding
fathers of the 1978 Constitution.”
“Other concepts were then added later,” he added. “The most disastrous of them was to generalize the map of the regions.”
In
October, Spain’s two main parties — Mr. Rajoy’s Popular Party and the
Socialists — agreed to form a commission to prepare a constitutional
reform. Their decision was in large part an attempt to defuse the
Catalan crisis.
But
the commission will take six months to prepare its preliminary report,
and there is no guarantee that politicians will reach consensus over
what to change, in particular when it comes to the sensitive issue of
regional power.
“Politicians
are discussing things they don’t understand,” said Mr. Herrero de
Miñón, citing suggestions by some politicians that Spain needed a
federal system. “Almost no Spanish politician knows the difference
between a confederation and a federation.”
What rights do the autonomous regions have?
Each autonomous region has its own elected Parliament whose lawmakers elect a government to run the region.
The
regions have control over a range of services, the most important being
health care and education. Some of the regions have more autonomy,
notably Catalonia and the Basque Country, which have their own police
forces.
Two
regions — the Basque Country and Navarra — also have independent fiscal
systems, something that Catalonia demanded in 2012 but that Mr. Rajoy’s
government refused. (At the time, Spain was struggling with a banking
bailout.)
Two
regions collect their own taxes; the other 15 are part of a Spanish tax
redistribution system that transfers funds to poorer regions from
richer ones, like Catalonia.
Why is there strong resentment in Catalonia toward the central government?
There
are historic and cultural reasons for the tensions, but a turning point
came in 2010, when Spain’s Constitutional Court rejected part of a
statute of autonomy that had been agreed to in 2006 and approved in a
Catalan referendum and by lawmakers in the Catalan and Spanish
Parliaments.
The
Catalan resentment is aimed at the governing party of Mr. Rajoy because
it had campaigned against a Catalan statute that had been promoted by
the Socialists, its main rival party in Spain.
Will new regional elections help resolve the crisis?
There
is no guarantee that new Catalan elections will defuse the
constitutional showdown, let alone change the political landscape in the
region.
Mr.
Rajoy set Dec. 21 as the date for early elections. But the level of
participation depends partly on whether separatist politicians will take
part.
A
newly chosen Parliament could present new risks to Mr. Rajoy’s
government in Madrid, particularly if another independence coalition
were re-elected and controlled the Catalan Parliament.
“While
we ultimately expect separatist parties to recognize and agree to take
part in the election, this is a close call,” Federico Santi, an analyst
at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy in Washington, wrote
in an emailed advisory to clients. “Moreover, there is a real risk that
even if elections are held, separatist parties could again win an even
stronger majority in the regional Parliament.”
Could Catalonia thrive as an independent republic?
It
would be extremely complicated without any agreement with the central
government in Madrid and the European Union’s institutions.
While
Catalonia is relatively rich — it has 16 percent of Spain’s population
but represents 19 percent of Spain’s economic output and 25 percent of
its exports — the conflict with Madrid has persuaded more than 1,600
companies to move their legal headquarters from Catalonia since the
start of this month.
Setting up an independent republic hinges in part on whether Catalonia would assume its share of Spain’s debt.
Catalonia
would have to establish its own defense and border security, central
bank, taxation system and many other institutions and services currently
provided by Madrid.
And
Catalonia presumably would want to retain the rights and privileges
that come with European Union membership — which the regional government
has so far failed to guarantee.
European
Union officials have been wary about meddling in a dispute over
sovereignty in one of the bloc’s most important member states, and have
mostly dismissed the Oct. 27 Catalan declaration of independence.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said in a Twitter post after
Catalonia’s Parliament voted for independence that, for the European
Union, “Nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor.”
