Spanish Constitution of 1978 and Basque Autonomy Statute
Spanish Constitution of 1978
The 1978 Constitution was drafted during the Transition. The author is the Spanish Cortes, and it was ratified by King Juan Carlos. It consists of 11 titles and 169 articles, additional and transitional provisions.
- Article 1 points out that Spain is a social and democratic State of Law, that national sovereignty belongs to the Spaniards, and the political system will be the parliamentary monarchy.
- Article 2 states the unity of the Spanish nation but recognizes the right of autonomy of different regions.
- Articles 66, 68, and 117 conform to the power division.
- Article 143 recognizes the right of regions with common characteristics to form autonomous communities.
At the end appear two dispositions: one refers to the respect towards the historical rights of foral territories, and the second declared null and void the October 1836 law and the 1879 law.
The Transition really started when the Law of Political Reform was passed by the still Francoist Cortes and approved in a popular referendum in 1976. The writing of the Constitution was a long and arduous task. It was approved after 16 months of discussion. Spain has a long history of failed constitutions, and writers of the Constitution wanted to devise a document that would be acceptable to the majority of political forces and gain widespread support. All political parties in Cortes approved the Constitution, but the Basque Nationalist Party abstained as they considered Basque historical rights weren’t respected in the Constitution.
According to the Constitution, Spain is a social democratic state of law, opposite to the one in force during the Francoist period, placing national sovereignty on the Spanish people. This Constitution proclaims the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation but, at the same time, recognizes the grant of autonomy of nationalities and regions. The Constitution established that an autonomy statute must be drafted and approved for each autonomic community and defines their competences and competences kept by the state.
Basque Country Autonomy Statute of 1979
The text is a selection of articles from the 1979 Autonomy Statute of the Basque Country. It was issued during the Transition period, after the 1978 Constitution had been approved. This Statute replaces the one in force for nine months in Biscay while the Spanish Civil War. It was approved at Cortes in June 1979 after negotiations carried out between the Spanish government and Carlos Garaikoetxea, leader of the Basque Nationalist Party and head of the Basque Council.
Autonomy statutes define the territory, boundaries, name, capital, official languages, and flag of the autonomy communities. The Constitution made a difference between regions that had drafted an autonomy statute during the Second Republic and the rest of the regions.
In the Gernika Statute of Autonomy, the preliminary title includes many controversial issues, and the final draft is the result of a compromise between Basque political forces during the transition and the governing UCD, who negotiated the final version with Carlos Garaikoetxea.
There were several controversial articles:
- The question of the Basque Country being a nationality.
- Nafarroa: The second article states the right of Nafarroa to join the Basque autonomous community if Nafarroa accepts it.
- Territoriality: Article 3 refers to the right the historical territories of Araba, Gipuzkoa, and Biscay have to decide on their own institutions. Due to this article, each province has its Juntas Generales and Diputaciones, which are very powerful as they collect the taxes and decide where this money is spent.
- Article 6 deals with the official languages in the Basque Community.
A Peculiar Feature: “Concierto Económico”
According to this Statute, the Basque Country has the legislative power, which lays on the parliament of Vitoria. Apart from that, each province has its own institutions: Juntas Generales and Diputaciones. The competencies the statute defines are very wide. However, the statute remains being a controversial decree.