Spanish Constitutional Reform update

international | eu | other press 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