Spanish gov’t calls for fresh Catalan vote

SPAIN’S socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday proposed holding a referendum on greater autonomy for Catalonia but ruled out allowing a vote on independence as demanded by Catalan leaders.

“It is a referendum for autonomy, not for autodetermination,” he added.

Catalonia was granted autonomy under Spain’s 1978 constitution adopted three years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

In 2006, a statute granting even greater powers to the region was approved by the Spanish and Catalan parliaments.

And in a referendum at the time, over 73 per cent of voters in Catalonia approved it.

But in 2010 Spain’s Constitutional Court struck down several articles of the charter, among them attempts to place the distinctive Catalan language above Spanish in the region and a clause describing the region as a “nation”.

The ruling sparked a rise in support for independence in Catalonia, which accounts for about one fifth of the Spanish economy.

“Catalonia currently has a statute which it did not vote for, so there is a political problem,” Sanchez said.

Polls show Catalans are divided on the question of independence but an overwhelming majority back a referendum to settle the question.