Resounding 'yes' to Catalonia's plan for radical devolution

IT'S an issue that has sharply divided opinion and led to a top army official losing his job, but after years of debate the Spanish state of Catalonia yesterday gave a resounding "yes" in favour of further independence.

The referendum, approved by 73.9 per cent of the electorate, will see the north-eastern area become one of the most independent regions in Europe, with a greater slice of its tax revenue, more say over the appointment of judges and prosecutors and control over issues ranging from immigration to train services.

Most importantly, the statute implies that Catalonia is a nation within Spain - which some believe will eventually lead to the break-up of country.

However, participation was much lower than expected, with only 49% per cent of the five million voters turning out. This was in marked contrast to the previous referendum on autonomy in 1979, which had a turn out of 59.7 per cent, with just over 88 per cent in favour.

The vote now overturns the statute of the 1979 referendum, which gave autonomy back to Catalonia following the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975 and the country's return to democracy.

During the 40 years of Franco's military dictatorship, Catalans saw their language and culture viciously stamped out, with books being burned, all public institutions ordered to speak Castillian and any talk of independence leading to arrest.

Speaking last night, Joaquim Nadal, a spokesman for the Catalan parliament, said the vote was a "new stage towards greater self-government".

He added: "We find ourselves in front of a historical landmark for all Catalans."

The move to give Catalonia and the other Spanish regions greater autonomy has been a keystone of prime minister Jos Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist agenda. "It does not make us smaller as a country, but greater and richer in diversity," he has said.

The campaign for a "no" vote was led by the opposition party Partido Popular (PP), with leader Mariano Rajoy claiming the statute was "the beginning of the end of the state Spaniards drew up in 1978".

However, his views had little support in Catalonia. A visit by Mr Rajoy to the El Merit de Collblanc market in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, to the west of Barcelona, last week was disrupted when Catalan protesters shouting and banging saucepans forced the PP national chief to cut short his visit, fleeing out the back door.

Last night, Jos Blanco, the secretary of the ruling Partido Socialista Obrera Espanol (PSOE) party, said the vote was "a full triumph of the affirmative vote and a full failure of the negative", adding that the "only loser" was the PP.

He added that the new statute "has many winners - democracy, the constitution, the autonomous states, Catalonia and Spain - because this result reinforces the co-existence".

Opinion polls prior to the vote claimed that more than 50 per cent of Spaniards outwith Catalonia are against the statute, with many right-wing politicians saying it will begin the end of Spain as a country and leave Madrid with no-one to govern and no money to govern with.