Spain PM eyes vote on Catalonian autonomy

SPAIN’S prime minister yesterday proposed holding a referendum in Catalonia on greater autonomy for the wealthy region but ruled out allowing a vote on independence as demanded by Catalan leaders.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — who since coming to power in June has attempted to defuse tensions over Catalonia’s independence drive by holding talks with the region’s separatist president Quim Torra — told radio Cadena Ser that dialogue should lead to “a vote... on the reinforcement of Catalonia’s autonomy.”

“It is a referendum for autonomy, not for self-determination,” he added, without giving a timeline for the proposed vote.

But Torra, who was being interviewed at the same time by Catalan public television, said “The independence process is irreversible.”

Catalonia, which has its own distinct language, was granted autonomy under Spain’s 1978 constitution. In 2006, a statute granting even greater powers to the northwestern region was approved by the Spanish and Catalan parliaments. In a referendum at the time, over 73 percent 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.”