Federal Asymmetry and Intergovernmental Relations in Spain

Robert Agranoff School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University-Bloomington, USA and Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset Madrid, SPAIN Asymmetry in governing receives a fair amount of attention in Spain. Late in 2004 the Basque Country parliament put forth the Ibarretexe plan (named after the regional premier Juan José Ibarretexe), that attempts to redefine devolved regional autonomy and provide for a possible referendum on becoming “a free state associated with Spain.” Passed with last minute support from political sympathizers of the ETA terrorist group, Ibarretexe at a minimum has called for a parliamentary commission in Madrid to re-negotiate its statute of autonomy, that is the region’s sub-national constitutional equivalent. The response from the government in Madrid was to reject the plan, with Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero calling it secessionist, unconstitutional, and incompatible with a frontierless Europe. He has ruled out government-to-government negotiations in favor of a review of all seventeen original regional statutes, which is linked to his reform program. Catalonia has also called for a re-negotiation of its statute of autonomy. Its regional parliament passed revisions in Fall 2005 that would grant Catalonia an independent legal system, the right to raise taxes and negotiate payments to Madrid, and to be called “a nation.” The Socialist led Catalan government wants to collect all taxes like the Basques and Navarrenos do under special dejure arrangements. In regard to recognition as a nation, the premier Pasqual Maragall says “the statute does not have to be particular; the word nation is polygenic” (Economist 6-15-05 p. 48). A vote by the central parliament is not expected until protracted negotiations are undertaken during 2006. Foreword