Spanish Constitutional Reform update

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Friday December 03, 2004 09:52

by .:.

Catalan Independence clause.

Ná leathnaigh do bhrat muna féidir leat á chosaint.

(do not unfurl your flag if you may not defend it)
ERC the Left Republican Catalan party, which is a member of the Tripartite Government of Catalonia and the tripartite council of Barcelona has suggested an interesting adjustment to the Spanish Constitution's Article 8º.

Article 8º invests the Spanish Armed Force with the guarantee of Spanish State unity.

ERC have suggested to the Spanish minister of Defence, José Bono, that this article be rewritten in the new constitution (presently felt to be up for review) so that "the Spanish Armed Forces would not act against a people who democratically and freely chose their destiny".

For his part the Minister has signalled that he likes the idea. Reference is not often made to Article 8º, the last I can recall being made by Manual Fraga (PP) the President of the Xunta of Galicia, a man who has held governmental office since being Franco's minister of the interior, and also one of the men responsible for drafting the current constitution. (The first democratic constitution since the overthrow of the Republic).

Fraga shouted across the Chamber of Deputies in the Winter of last year reminding the leader of ERC that the "army guarantees the unity of Spain".

This might all seem "pi in the sky", but it does show the slow step by step process that self determination, regionalism, etc etc have to take to "avoid tanks on the street and people in cells".

It is thus worth remembering that the last land exercises of the Spanish Armed Forces were held in the Basque and Catalonia during the Aznar regime. Basques waking up one morning to a practise "invasion" and Catalans once being bemused to see both Naval and Land forces seize the beach in front of Salvador Dalí's house at Cadaques.

here thus are two versions-
the cat's mouth ERC site- (they haven't translated it into english, coz they're like tweedy gealgoirs and secretly dont want us anglophoens here @ all)
http://www.esquerra.org/
and the domain of Fraga the little fiefdom of Galicia which though having a nationalist movement is generally considered to be very very single state Spanish.
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/se_espania/noticia.jsp?CAT=103&TEXTO=3260982

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The President of Catalonia

by iosaf

Mon Dec 06, 2004 13:44

Joan Maragall last night made a declaration on behalf of the Tripatrite government of the "autonomous community of Catalonia" (one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain, for today's celebrations of the Spanish Constitution).

Maragall leads the PSC, the Catalan wing of the PSOE which presently holds the central government of Spain. He's a shrewd man who's "spitting image" puppet (we still have spitting image over here) depicts him as an eskimo in a furry hoody. He's the grandson of the Catalan poet of the same name (1860-1911).

His statement has been issued at a time of tension between the right and left of Spain, which has been simmering for weeks. Tension which has been compounded by the declaration by the heirarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain to undermine the current government, by accusations of conspiracy in the coup d'etat attempt in Venezuela 2002 being leveled at the PP by the current minister of foreign affairs, the refusal of President Bush to meet "prime minister" Zapatero, the insistence by the PP government of Valencia (a traditional part of the Catalan lands) that Valencian be considered a seperate language despite the Royal academy seeing no major difference between the _dialects_ of Catalan, the lengthy testimony by former "prime minster" Aznar (and life president of the PP) to the March 11th commission in which he appeared to blame leftwing activists for being part of a terrorist conspiracy to steal the election, and the return of terror to Madrid last Friday with five bombs which were admitted by ETA less than two weeks after their political wing spoke of the need to take conflict from the street.

His statement was made in the Generalitat without the attendance of the ERC his partners in the tripartite government.

He has said amongst other things -

on diversity-
That nations are nations and regions are regions.

Plurality-
Spain ought be understood as a free union of it's peoples.

Consensus-
Constitutional reform must be democratically approved.

Hope-
"That the peoples of Spain, find themselves at the historic moment they have always dreamt of" [my addition - and not that nightmare through which they lived]

The XXVI anniversary of the Spanish Constitution is marked today with ceremonies at the Madrid Assembly in the presence of the King and Queen and most political parties (PSOE, PP, and their associates, IU (marxist left) ICV and CIU (centre nationalist catalan) but without the attendance of the following parties-
ERC (catalan republican left, a ruling coalition member) , PNV (basque centre nationalist) a ruling coation member , BNG (Galician nationalist party) , EA y Nafarroa Bai (Basque left wing parties).
http://www.lavanguardia.es/web/20041206/51171173817.html

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Meanwhile there is today an annual Republican memorial rally in Madrid. When the flag of the 2nd republic is carried by those many of Spain who owe allegiance and historic memory to it.
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/141492

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Spain has a wonderful mixture of peoples, histories, imaginations, wishes, talents, viewpoints, it has all it takes to be a truly great country. And as much as the history of Britian can not be understood without Ireland, Scotland or "Ulster" , I believe that Spain may not be understood without Catalonia, the Basque and Galicia. Though to be honest i think too many people put to much faith and store in flags, and not enough in dialogue, patience, forgiveness, listening to each other and understanding.
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/142143
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The last link is to the Generalitat's own website, many of you will have read about the Generalitat in Orwell's works, for some reason he called it the "Generalite". It changed it's web address from ".es" to ".net" on the 11th of September, (Catalan national day) 2002. There you may look at Mr Maragall and ponder whether he looks like an eskimo or no. I don't think he does.

The Leader of the DUP

Mon Dec 06, 2004 21:49

barcelona

has issued a statement which 10 Downing Street describe as being positive in relation to the implementation of constitutional reform in Ireland and the UK and Northern Ireland which has been stalled for a variety of reasons in these recent years despite the best possible efforts being made by all architects of the orginal Good Friday agreement to broker a final settlement.

Here's the link to the "Voz de Galicia" who's president is Manual Fraga who is older than Mr Paisley, and probably wiser too.
I recommend going to the link just to see our Irish Grand Old Man.

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Spanish Constitutional Reform update

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