The processing in the Parliament of Catalonia (2004-2006)

In February 2004, the Catalan Parliament established the proposal that was going to draft the new Statute, to which the Popular Party later joined.[2] The following month, the Spanish general elections of 2004 gave victory to the Spanish Socialist Workers Party and its leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, formed a government, bound by the promise made during the Catalan election campaign that he would support the reform of the Statute approved by the Parliament of Catalonia. However, when the draft on which the parliamentary commission in charge of writing the preliminary draft of the new Statute was working was known, the socialist government made known to the president of the Generalitat Pasqual Maragall what would be the limits that should not be crossed: that it did not involve the modification of organic laws, such as that of the Judiciary, which are the responsibility of the Cortes Generales; that it did not include a financing regime such as that of the economic agreement of the Basque Country; that the powers of the Generalitat not be extended to all those not expressly attributed to the State in the Constitution; and that the duty of knowing Catalan was not established (an obligation that the Constitution only grants to Spanish). These conditions, as well as the government's concern about the intention to define Catalonia as "a nation", were expressed on behalf of the government by the Minister of Public Administrations Jordi Sevilla to the president Pasqual Maragall during the interview they held in Barcelona on February 12, 2005. "Not everything fits in the Statute, at the risk of making it incomprehensible," said the minister in a conference he gave that same day in the afternoon before the Círculo de Empresarios of Barcelona with the title A vision of plural Spain, and in which he identified "nationalities" with "stateless nations".[6].

The leader of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, in an article published in the newspaper ABC "ABC (newspaper)") on February 6, 2005 with the title "A certain idea of Spain", accused the president of the government Rodríguez Zapatero of allowing himself to be "dragged" by "the will of those who do not want to know anything about Spain" and expressed his opposition to the conception of Spain as "a plurinational, pluri-sovereign, federal, or any other variety of state." waning»:[7]​.

The former president of the government Felipe González also joined the criticism of the new Statute process. On March 18, 2005, he made a veiled attack on his socialist colleague Pasqual Maragall in the speech he gave on the occasion of Jordi Pujol being awarded the Concord Prize awarded by the Abril Martorell Foundation: «When talking about Jordi Pujol we can only express longing, do you understand me correctly, Jordi? Something as serious as Catalonia is not invented. Catalonia has already been invented and when you want to build something solid, it must be done respecting the foundations."[8]​.

Pasqual Maragall responded on March 30 through an email whose content would not be known until early 2014. Maragall began by alluding to González's words — «I have read that Catalonia cannot be reinvented. I agree. Catalonia, like Castile, is older than Spain. It's been invented for a long time"—and then make reference to the idea of ​​"plural Spain"—whose precursor had been an old socialist militant, Anselmo Carretero—and which Felipe González had not applied when he was in government—the PSOE then was only "interested in the Spain of the State of autonomies without distinctions" and was scared by "the drift towards a plural Spain"—in contrast to the policy that Rodríguez Zapatero was carrying out:[9]​.

On May 13, Joan Saura, Conseller of Institutional Relations and Participation and leader of the ICV, one of the three coalition parties in the "tripartite" government, wrote an article in the newspaper El País with the title "What does Catalonia want?":[10]​.

Regarding the specific objectives of the Statute, Joan Saura said that there were five:[10]​.

Although there was a quick agreement between the three parties that formed the Government of Catalonia and Convergència i Unió on issues such as the definition of Catalonia as a "nation", the duty to know the two official languages (Catalan and Spanish) or the creation of a Catalan constituency in the elections to the European Parliament, other issues such as the financing of the Generalitat, secularism in education or the extent to which historical rights were updated produced deep divisions that raised fears about the approval of the reform and that were not resolved until the last moment.

On July 8, 2005, the Parliament of Catalonia's report concluded its work and that same day the Popular Party announced that it did not support the project. Twenty days later it passed the process in committee of the Parliament of Catalonia, but without reaching the necessary two-thirds because CiU opposed the proposed financing model and defended the economic agreement. CiU did not lower its demands until its leader Artur Mas met in Madrid on September 19 with the president of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.[1]​.

Until the day before the final vote in the Parliament, which was held on September 30, 2005, the "tripartite" and CIU were negotiating until that day Pasqual Maragall and the head of the opposition of Catalonia Artur Mas closed an agreement in extremis on the financing of the Generalitat and secularism in education. That day and the previous day, the Titles of the Statute had been voted on and in some of the votes they did not have the support of the 42 deputies of the PSC, who doubted the constitutionality of some of the articles (which is why several Titles of the proposal only had the favorable votes of CiU and ERC, since they alone held the absolute majority in the Parliament, or of CiU, ERC and ICV),[1]​ but in the final vote On the 30th, the Statute was approved with the favorable votes of the PSC, ERC, ICV, and CiU, totaling 120 of the 135 deputies of the Parliament. The 15 deputies of the Popular Party voted against because, according to the leader of the PP in Catalonia Josep Piqué, the new Statute "modifies the nature of the State" and seeks to "distance Catalonia from Spain", while the leader of the independence party ERC Josep Lluís Carod Rovira presented it as a "hand extended to Spain". For his part, President Maragall once again stressed the definition of Spain as a "nation of nations" and considered the Statute as a commitment to a "federal, diverse or plural" Spain.[11]

As soon as the approval of the Statute by the Parliament of Catalonia was announced, the government spokesperson María Teresa Fernández de la Vega stated in Madrid: "We must guarantee that the final text is in accordance with the Constitution from A to Z, with the general interest and that of all citizens."[12]​.

The Statute project in the Cortes Generales (2005-2006)

When the draft statute was presented to the Congress of Deputies, various state and social institutions, from the General Council of the Judiciary or the Bank of Spain to the Catholic Church, the employers' association or the unions, showed their radical opposition to it. The Popular Party, for its part, demanded the holding of a referendum throughout Spain on the Statute, and began collecting signatures so that the Congress of Deputies would not admit the project for processing.[1][13]​.

On November 2, 2005, after the Board of the Congress of Deputies accepted the proposal for processing, against the criteria of the Popular Party, the Plenary of the same held the debate of consideration, in which the convergent Artur Mas, the socialist Manuela de Madre and the republican Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira participated, representing the Parliament of Catalonia. The President of the Government of Spain also intervened to express his favorable position on taking it into consideration. Thus, the Congress of Deputies decided to take into consideration the proposal by 197 votes in favor, 146 votes against, all of them from the PP, and one abstention.

Since then, its processing began in the Constitutional Commission of Congress, chaired by the former vice president of the Government, Alfonso Guerra, who commissioned a joint presentation between representatives of the aforementioned Commission and the Parliament of Catalonia to agree on an opinion to be subsequently submitted to the Plenary. From the beginning there was no unity of action between the four parties that had approved the text in Catalonia, which led to a bilateral negotiation between each party and the PSOE.

It soon became clear which were the most conflictive issues in the proposal presented by the Parliament of Catalonia: the definition of Catalonia as a "nation"; the "duty" of knowing Catalan, which equated it with Spanish in Catalonia; the creation of the Council of Justice of Catalonia; the new financing system; and the shielding of the powers of the Generalitat.[14]​.

On December 3, the PP called a rally at Puerta del Sol in Madrid in which its leader Mariano Rajoy gave a speech in which the phrases "We do not form a nation of nations" and "There is only one nation, the Spanish one" were the most applauded, and cheered with cries of "Spain, Spain!", by the tens of thousands of people attending the rally (200,000 according to the Community of Madrid).[15]

The political and social tension that the Statute was causing outside of Catalonia also reached the government party, the PSOE, and thus on the morning of Saturday, January 21, 2006, the federal committee of the PSOE urged its general secretary and president of the government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to close the debate on the Statute once and for all or to liquidate the process. In the afternoon of that same day, Zapatero summoned the leader of CiU Artur Mas and after six hours of debate, at the stroke of midnight, they reached an agreement on two of the most conflictive issues: the definition "Catalonia is a nation" and financing. Regarding the first question, they agreed to remove the proclamation of Catalonia as a "nation" from the articles and take it to the preamble where it would have no legal force, while article 1 would continue to define Catalonia as a "nationality." resolved by increasing the participation of the Generalitat in State taxes (from 33% to 50% of Personal Income Tax (Spain)); from 40% to 58% of special taxes; and from 35% to 50% of VAT), although they would be collected by the State Tax Agency, in addition to the Government's commitment to invest in Catalonia an amount equivalent to the weight of the Catalan economy in Spain as a whole. (18.5% of GDP), and that Catalonia would not lose positions in the classification of the autonomous communities by per capita income due to its contributions to the interterritorial solidarity fund (the so-called that applies in federal States, such as Germany).[16]​.

Crisis of the "tripartite", referendum, resignation of Maragall, appeal for unconstitutionality of the PP, Catalan elections and reissue of the "tripartite" (May-November 2006)

On May 11, 2006, as a consequence of ERC's lack of support for the Statute approved by the Congress of Deputies, the six republican councilors were "expelled" from the "tripartite" government of Catalonia. Their positions were assumed by members of the PSC.[17]​.

On Sunday, June 18, 2006, the referendum on the Statute was held in Catalonia in which the YES, defended by the PSC and ICV, won with 73.90% of the votes, while the NO, supported by ERC and the PP, remained at 20.76%, although abstention was 50.59% (there were 5.3% of blank votes). After knowing the results, the president of the Generalitat Pasqual Maragall, after stating "Dear Catalans: we have a Statute", urged ERC and the PP to "join the consensus" to develop the Statute. The leader of ERC Josep Lluís Carod Rovira accepted the "verdict of the Catalan people", but pointed out that the approval of the new Statute did not mean that "an end to the national aspirations of Catalonia", while the leader of the PP Mariano Rajoy considered the result of the referendum as a "failure" of "Zapatero's personal project", as he called the Statute, since "two out of three Catalans do not support [it]", adding to continuation: "What requires a minimum of patriotism and common sense is to paralyze this operation to liquidate the Spanish nation."[18]​.

The approval of the Statute became a "bitter victory"[19]​ for Pasqual Maragall since a few days after the referendum was held he announced that he would no longer be the socialist candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat in the next Catalan elections, apparently under pressure from his own party, the PSC. "I am leaving with my objectives accomplished and to give way to a new generation," declared Maragall. His replacement was going to be José Montilla, first secretary of the PSC and Minister of Industry of the Rodríguez Zapatero government.[20]​[21]​[22]​.

On July 31, 2006, the Popular Party presented to the Constitutional Court an appeal of unconstitutionality "Recurso de unconstitucionalidad (Spain)") against the new Statute of Catalonia, in which 114 of the 223 articles and 12 provisions of the same were appealed. Three days earlier Mariano Rajoy had listed the eight main elements of unconstitutionality that his party saw in the Statute: that Catalonia is a nation, since "from the constitutional point of view, there is no nation other than the Spanish nation, holder of sovereignty", and to that nation "the nationalities and regions that make up its indissoluble unity cannot be compared" and whose statutes are "a power derived from the Constitution"; the "privileged" treatment of the Catalan language derived from considering its knowledge as a duty and from "the exclusive consideration of Catalan as the language of education", which on the other hand, goes against "the right of parents to choose the language in which they want their children to study"; that there be "different rights and duties" for Catalans than for the rest of Spaniards, because this "goes against the equality of all Spaniards"; the Judicial Power for Catalonia, because "it breaks with the judicial unity of Spain"; the distribution of powers between Catalonia and the State; the principle of bilaterality "which privileges Catalonia and lays the foundations for an asymmetric confederal model" and supposes "an inequality that is unacceptable in the Constitution"; the international relations of Catalonia, and its own financing system when this must be agreed between all the autonomies.[23]​.

Preamble

Some media pointed out that in the preamble of the Statute drafted by the Parliament of Catalonia, the right of self-determination of Catalonia was implicitly claimed and that in the historical overview that appeared in it, reference was made to the loss of "national freedoms" in 1714, to the creation of the Commonwealth of Catalonia in 1914 and to the Statutes of Autonomy of 1932 and 1979, but not to the Spanish Constitutions from which the Mancomunitat and the two statutes derived, that is, the Constitutions of 1876, 1931 and 1978, respectively. It was also highlighted that the preamble was the only part of the Statute in which reference was made to Spain (three times), without resorting to the terms "State" or "Spanish State", as was done in the articles (except the two times that Spain was mentioned to refer to the international relations of the Generalitat); but even in that case the mentions of Spain were made to highlight its "plurality" (relationship of Catalonia "with the people of Spain"; "Catalonia considers that Spain is a plurinational State"; Catalonia "coexists fraternally with the people of Spain").[14]​.

During its processing in the Congress of Deputies, the preamble was completely modified (and reduced), changing, among others, the statement that "Catalonia considers that Spain is a plurinational State" to "a State that recognizes and respects the diversity of identities of the people of Spain" and deleting the phrase "the vocation and right of Catalonia to freely determine its future as a people." It was also stressed that "the self-government of Catalonia is based on the Constitution" and that the "historical rights of the Catalan people" are framed within it. Finally, the term "nation" was reduced to the text agreed between Rodríguez Zapatero and Artur Mas to remove from the articles the statement "Catalonia is a nation": "The Parliament of Catalonia, collecting the sentiment and will of the citizens of Catalonia, has defined, in a large majority, Catalonia as a nation. The Spanish Constitution, in its second article, recognizes the national reality of Catalonia as a nationality.

The two preambles are reproduced below, indicating in bold the changes introduced by the Cortes Generales:

Preliminary title

The meaning of the Preliminary Title was explained by Joan Saura, Conseller of Institutional Relations and Participation and leader of ICV, one of the three coalition parties in the "tripartite" government, in an article published in the newspaper El País on May 13, 2005 with the title "What does Catalonia want?":[10]​.

Without a doubt, the most controversial issue of the Preliminary Title was the statement in article 1.1: "Catalonia is a nation." Already during the processing in the Catalan Parliament, the parties that supported this wording asked the Consultative Council of the Generalitat of Catalonia for an opinion, and this body understood that the terms "nation" and "nationality" (the latter included in the Constitution) were "identical and interchangeable", so it saw no impediment for it to appear in the articles, but as long as the definition of "nation" was not related to the "attribution of sovereignty", because then it would clash with the article. 2 of the Constitution that only recognizes a single nation, the "Spanish nation".[28] Another very controversial topic of the Preliminary Title was the "duty" to know Catalan established in article 6.[29]​.

This Title was also modified during its processing in the Congress of Deputies. The statement in article 1 "Catalonia is a nation" was deleted (and taken to the preamble with another wording). In article 5, "historical rights" were recognized only "in relation to civil law, language, culture, their protection in the educational field and the institutional system", which was reinforced with the deletion of the first additional provision which said that the "Catalan people" did not renounce "the rights that, as such, correspond to them by virtue of their history, which can be updated in accordance with the provisions of the first additional provision of the Constitution." In article 6, the statement "Catalan is the official language of Catalonia" was clarified with the subsection "So is Spanish" and that "all people in Catalonia have the right to use and the right and duty to know the two official languages" was modified by "all people have the right to use the two official languages" and citizens "have the right and duty to know them", adding then that there can be no discrimination "due to the use of one language or another. Finally, the title of article 8 "National symbols" was changed to "Symbols of Catalonia", although the expression "national symbols" was maintained in the article, but after emphasizing that Catalonia had been "defined as a nationality in article 1", not as a "nation".[27]​.

In the Preliminary Title, which consists of 14 articles, the Cortes Generales introduced the following changes to the project approved by the Parliament of Catalonia (in bold the changes;crossed out, the subsection of article 5 declared unconstitutional in the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006):

Title I. Rights, duties and guiding principles

Joan Saura also explained in the cited article why a declaration of rights, duties and guiding principles was included:[10]​.

The list of rights and duties approved by the Parliament of Catalonia presented some new features compared to the one that appears in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Article 20 recognized the right of all people to "live the process of their death with dignity." In 21 it was said that in public schools "education is secular", although the right of parents to have their children receive "religious and moral training that is in accordance with their convictions" was recognized. In another article, the right of families in poverty to "a guaranteed minimum income of citizenship that assures them the minimum of a decent life" was recognized. In 40, the obligation of public powers to guarantee the "legal, economic and social protection of the various types of family", and their right to "have children", as well as "the equality of the different stable couple unions", regardless of their sexual orientation. Another article established the promotion of policies from a "gender perspective", and another the establishment of "a reception regime for immigrants." Finally, regarding linguistic rights, non-discrimination for reasons of language was recognized, and special mention was made of the preservation of the "historical memory of Catalonia", "permanent symbol of tolerance and dignity of democratic values".[29]​.

This title was one of those that suffered the least changes during its processing in the Congress of Deputies. The main one was that the protection of all the rights included in the new text will only be binding on the Catalan administrations and not on the central one. Thus, article 37.1, in its first version, stated that "the rights recognized by chapters I, II and III bind all the public powers that act in Catalonia and, in accordance with the nature of each right, the individuals", while the final wording was as follows: "The rights recognized by chapters I, II and III bind all the public powers of Catalonia and, in accordance with the nature of each right, the individuals." On the other hand, Unió Democràtica de Catalunya managed to add, along with the recognition of a woman's right "to her own body" or the right to a dignified death: "The rights that this Statute recognizes for the citizens of Catalonia can be extended to other people, in the terms established by law."[27]​.

This Title is made up of chapters I (Rights and duties in the civil and social fields; articles 15 to 28), II (Rights in the political and administrative fields; articles 29 to 31), III (Linguistic rights and duties; articles 32 to 36), IV (Guarantee of Statutory Rights; articles 37 to 38) and V (; articles 39 to 54). The changes introduced by the Cortes Generales in the project presented by the Parliament of Catalonia were the following (changes in ):

Title II. Of the Institutions

In this Title, as in the previous one, practically no changes were introduced during the processing of the project in the Congress of Deputies. The main one was the statement that "the president of the Generalitat is appointed by the King", while the text agreed by the Parliament of Catalonia, although it mentioned the same formula, then established that "the appointment proposal is endorsed by the president of the Parliament and by the president of the State Government." Regarding the personal status of the president of the Generalitat, the section was eliminated that maintained that, "for the purposes of precedence and protocol in Catalonia, the president of the Generalitat has the preeminent position, immediately after the King."[27]​.

This Title consists of chapter I (Parliament; articles 55 to 66), II (The President of the Generalitat; article 67), III (The Government and Administration of the Generalitat; articles 68 to 72), IV (Relations between Parliament and the Government; articles 73 to 75), V (Other institutions of the Generalitat; articles 76 to 82), VI (Local government; articles 83 to 93) and VII (Aran's own institutional organization; article 94). The changes introduced by the Cortes Generales in the project presented by the Parliament of Catalonia were the following (in bold the changes; crossed out section 4 of article 76 and the subsection of article 78, declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in 2010):

Title III. Of the judicial power in Catalonia

In his investiture speech Pasqual Maragall proposed that the new Statute include[5]​.

The project approved by the Parliament of Catalonia included as main novelties, the determination that the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia was the last judicial instance in Catalonia, with the only exception of the unification of doctrine that corresponded to the Supreme Court "Supreme Court (Spain)"), and the creation of the Council of Justice of Catalonia as the governing body of the judicial power in Catalonia, assuming a large part of the functions of the General Council of the Judiciary. Another novelty was the figure of the senior prosecutor of Catalonia, as well as the obligation for judges and prosecutors assigned to Catalonia to have adequate knowledge of Catalan. It also created its own body of officials at the service of the administration of justice in Catalonia.[30]​.

This Title also included that to guarantee that no discrimination occurred for linguistic reasons and that legal acts carried out in either of the two languages ​​were fully valid, "without being able to claim ignorance" or requiring the translation of documents, judges, prosecutors, notaries, registrars and judicial officials stationed in Catalonia "must prove that they have an adequate and sufficient level of knowledge of the official languages."[29]​.

This Title was modified at various points during its processing in the Congress of Deputies. Although the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) maintained its status as the last judicial instance in this community, it lost the jurisdiction in commercial law included in the initial proposal and the cassation function in matters of state law. The Council of Justice of Catalonia was also maintained as the governing body of the judiciary and acting as a deconcentrated body of the General Council of the Judiciary, but the clause was added that this will be so "in accordance with the provisions of the Organic Law of the Judiciary." Likewise, its composition will be determined by an organic law, although it was maintained that its members will be appointed by the Catalan Parliament. The way of appointing the president of the TSJC was also modified, who will also be the president of the Justice Council, since this body will only "participate" in his appointment, while in the initial project he was appointed from a shortlist of the Council. The same happened with the chief prosecutor of Catalonia, who will be appointed in accordance with the Statute of the Public Prosecutor's Office, while in the initial text he arose from the shortlist proposed by the Catalan Government. The provision that the functions of the chief prosecutor could be expanded with a law of the Catalan Parliament was also suppressed, although the final text provides for the possibility that the Generalitat "may enter into agreements" with the prosecutor's office.[27]​.

Title IV. Of the powers

Joan Saura wrote about the powers in the article published in the newspaper El País on May 13, 2005 already cited:[10]​.

During the processing in the Congress of Deputies this Title underwent important modifications, starting with the definition of exclusive jurisdiction, from which the adjective "exclusive" was deleted, as a result of the agreement reached between Rodríguez Zapatero and Artur Mas. Likewise, the section that referred to the Generalitat assuming the management of state powers by appealing to article 150.2 of the Constitution, which allows the government to "transfer or delegate" powers of the State to the autonomous communities, was also deleted. In this way, a good number of powers disappeared from the Statute, such as the management of "telecommunications infrastructure located in Catalonia", the possibility of issuing licenses to drive vehicles, the "selection of foreign workers in their countries of origin destined for Catalonia" or the management of the Barcelona airport, one of the main demands of the Catalan parties. Two other powers most coveted by the Catalan parties were also suppressed: the "authorization for the calling of popular consultations via referendum" and the possibility of having Catalan sports teams.[27]​.

Title V. Institutional relations of the Generalitat

In his investiture speech on December 15, 2003, Pasqual Maragall announced that he wanted the Generalitat to be able to "represent the State, as happens in other federal countries in Europe, in those matters that fall under its jurisdiction."[5]​ About this issue Joan Saura wrote:[10]​.

According to the proposal approved by the Parliament of Catalonia, a Generalitat-State Bilateral Commission was created as a permanent body for relations between the two administrations, and in which any conflicts of powers that may arise will be resolved. It was also established that the Generalitat participated in the appointment of the members of the Constitutional Court "Constitutional Tribunal (Spain)") and the General Council of the Judiciary, and appointed representatives in various organizations such as the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission, the National Telecommunications Market Commission"), the Court of Accounts, the Economic and Social Council "Economic and Social Council (Spain)") or the Data Protection Agency").[30]

Regarding foreign policy, the participation of the Generalitat in international organizations that deal with issues that are the exclusive competence of the Generalitat or that deal with matters of relevant interest to Catalonia, such as UNESCO, was recognized.[30]​.

This Title underwent several modifications during its processing in the Congress of Deputies. The change that some media highlighted most was the suppression of the consideration of Catalonia as an electoral constituency in the elections to the European Parliament.[27]​.

This Title consists of chapter I (Relations of the Generalitat with the State and with other Autonomous Communities; articles 174 to 183), II (Relations of the Generalitat with the European Union; articles 184 to 192) and III (External action of the Generalitat; articles 193 to 200). The changes introduced by the Cortes Generales to the project approved by the Parliament of Catalonia are the following (changes in bold):

Title VI. Of the financing of the Generalitat

In his investiture speech before the Parliament of Catalonia on December 15, 2003, Pasqual Maragall established the objective of his government:[5]​.

For his part, Joan Saura, leader of ICV, wrote in May 2005:[10]​.

The proposal approved by the Parliament of Catalonia attributed to the Tax Agency of Catalonia the collection of all taxes paid in Catalonia, and then the Generalitat would contribute to the State an amount for the services it provides in Catalonia and as a concept of solidarity with the rest of the autonomous communities. That amount would be determined by a Joint State-General Commission on Economic and Fiscal Affairs. Furthermore, the Generalitat would have regulatory capacity over all taxes collected in Catalonia and would participate in setting tax rates and exemptions, and reductions and deductions on the quota. The new financing model was "shielded" by establishing the principle of subsidiarity, according to which in the event of a conflict between what is established in the Statute and state regulations, the former would prevail.[30]​.

When the project approved by the Parliament of Catalonia reached the Congress of Deputies, the new financing model became one of the main obstacles to reaching a consensus. It was the agreement reached in La Moncloa between the President of the Government Rodríguez Zapatero and the leader of CiU Artur Mas that allowed this issue to be unblocked. The agreement, which would be brought to the Statute, consisted of increasing the participation of the Generalitat in State taxes (from 33% to 50% of Personal Income Tax (Spain)); from 40% to 58% of excise taxes; and from 35% to 50% of VAT), in exchange for the renunciation of the Catalan Tax Agency collecting them. Furthermore, the Spanish Government committed to investing in Catalonia an amount equivalent to the weight of its economy in Spain as a whole (18.5% of GDP), and that Catalonia would not lose positions in the classification of the autonomous communities by per capita income due to its contributions to the interterritorial solidarity fund (the so-called principle of ordinality that is applied in federal states, such as Germany).[16]​.

Thus, the differences between the initial proposal of the Parliament of Catalonia and the one finally approved by the Spanish Cortes were significant, since the Catalan Tax Agency would only manage "the taxes of the Generalitat" and not "all taxes borne in Catalonia", as initially proposed. The transferred taxes will be collected by the State Tax Agency, although the possibility of creating a consortium "in which the two agencies would participate equally" was left open. Another important point was the suppression of the statement that the greater fiscal effort carried out by the Catalans "must translate into greater financial capacity and greater income for the Generalitat."[27]​.

Title VII. Of the reform of the Statute

This Title consists of two articles (222 and 223). The only differences between the proposal of the Parliament of Catalonia and the final wording approved by the Cortes Generales was the following (change in bold):

Additional, transitional and final provisions

The proposal of the Parliament of Catalonia consisted of 11 additional provisions, but the Cortes Generales deleted five and added nine, so that finally there are 15 that appear in the Statute. As for the rest of the provisions proposed by the Parliament of Catalonia, the Cortes Generales deleted the third transitional provision (maintaining the other two), maintained the repealing provision and deleted a final provision (maintaining the other four). The differences between the proposal of the Parliament of Catalonia and the final wording approved by the Cortes Generales are the following (changes in bold):

Background

After coming into force on June 18, 2006, the Statute was appealed for considering it unconstitutional "Recurso de unconstitucionalidad (Spain)") on seven occasions by seven different instances: the Popular Party through the signature of its deputies and senators against 187 articles and provisions;[31]​ the Ombudsman against 112 articles and four additional provisions, and five autonomous communities (Community of Murcia against the article 117, La Rioja "La Rioja (Spain)") against 12 articles and seven additional provisions, Government of Aragon against one additional provision, Generalidad Valenciana against eight articles and four transitional provisions, Government of the Balearic Islands against what is established in the Statute on the Archive of the Crown of Aragon).[32]​.

Resolution

On June 28, 2010, by means of Sentence 31/2010, the Constitutional Court, before the unconstitutionality appeal "Recurso de unconstitucionalidad (Spain)") presented by deputies of the Popular Party,[31]​ resolved by six votes in favor and four against the constitutionality of most of the text, noting the "legal ineffectiveness" of the Preamble (which included the term "nation" when referring to Catalonia), although the ruling maintains the definition of Catalonia as a "nation", and declared 14 articles unconstitutional.[33]​[34]​[35]​.

The presentation was finally written by the president, María Emilia Casas, and the vote was carried out by blocks: the first regarding the Preamble, in which it was resolved by 6 votes in favor and 4 against to maintain the term "nation", although it was warned of its lack of interpretive legal effectiveness, since it is not part of the normative text; The second block affected the articles to be declared unconstitutional, with a majority of 8 judges against 2 voting for the unconstitutionality of 14 of them; The other two blocks, which were the precepts adjusted to the Constitution and the interpretation of the articles on which there was conformity, were endorsed by six votes to four.[33] Four of the magistrates presented a dissenting vote: Ramón Rodríguez Arribas, Jorge Rodríguez-Zapata"), Vicente Conde") and Javier Delgado.[36]​[34]​.

Unconstitutional articles

The Constitutional Court declared 14 articles unconstitutional:[33]​[37]​[38]​.

Articles subject to interpretation given by the Constitutional Court

Those articles that the ruling indicated for interpretation must be precisely according to the criteria of the Court itself, what is called "conclusive legal basis")":[39]​[34]​.

Reactions: 10-J Demonstration

On July 10, 2010, a demonstration took place in Barcelona, ​​with the motto "Som una vivir, nosaltres decidim",[40]​ against the resolution of the Constitutional Court, with the support of all political parties in the Parliament of Catalonia except the PPC and Ciutadans. The attendance was one and a half million according to the organizers and one million one hundred thousand people according to the Urban Guard.

The six presidents and former presidents of the Generalitat and Parliament were present at the head: José Montilla, Ernest Benach, Pasqual Maragall, Jordi Pujol, Joan Rigol and Heribert Barrera. At the end of the demonstration, there was an attempted attack on José Montilla,[41]​ who had to leave the march protected.[40]​.

The processing in the Parliament of Catalonia (2004-2006)

In February 2004, the Catalan Parliament established the proposal that was going to draft the new Statute, to which the Popular Party later joined.[2] The following month, the Spanish general elections of 2004 gave victory to the Spanish Socialist Workers Party and its leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, formed a government, bound by the promise made during the Catalan election campaign that he would support the reform of the Statute approved by the Parliament of Catalonia. However, when the draft on which the parliamentary commission in charge of writing the preliminary draft of the new Statute was working was known, the socialist government made known to the president of the Generalitat Pasqual Maragall what would be the limits that should not be crossed: that it did not involve the modification of organic laws, such as that of the Judiciary, which are the responsibility of the Cortes Generales; that it did not include a financing regime such as that of the economic agreement of the Basque Country; that the powers of the Generalitat not be extended to all those not expressly attributed to the State in the Constitution; and that the duty of knowing Catalan was not established (an obligation that the Constitution only grants to Spanish). These conditions, as well as the government's concern about the intention to define Catalonia as "a nation", were expressed on behalf of the government by the Minister of Public Administrations Jordi Sevilla to the president Pasqual Maragall during the interview they held in Barcelona on February 12, 2005. "Not everything fits in the Statute, at the risk of making it incomprehensible," said the minister in a conference he gave that same day in the afternoon before the Círculo de Empresarios of Barcelona with the title A vision of plural Spain, and in which he identified "nationalities" with "stateless nations".[6].

The leader of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, in an article published in the newspaper ABC "ABC (newspaper)") on February 6, 2005 with the title "A certain idea of Spain", accused the president of the government Rodríguez Zapatero of allowing himself to be "dragged" by "the will of those who do not want to know anything about Spain" and expressed his opposition to the conception of Spain as "a plurinational, pluri-sovereign, federal, or any other variety of state." waning»:[7]​.

The former president of the government Felipe González also joined the criticism of the new Statute process. On March 18, 2005, he made a veiled attack on his socialist colleague Pasqual Maragall in the speech he gave on the occasion of Jordi Pujol being awarded the Concord Prize awarded by the Abril Martorell Foundation: «When talking about Jordi Pujol we can only express longing, do you understand me correctly, Jordi? Something as serious as Catalonia is not invented. Catalonia has already been invented and when you want to build something solid, it must be done respecting the foundations."[8]​.

Pasqual Maragall responded on March 30 through an email whose content would not be known until early 2014. Maragall began by alluding to González's words — «I have read that Catalonia cannot be reinvented. I agree. Catalonia, like Castile, is older than Spain. It's been invented for a long time"—and then make reference to the idea of ​​"plural Spain"—whose precursor had been an old socialist militant, Anselmo Carretero—and which Felipe González had not applied when he was in government—the PSOE then was only "interested in the Spain of the State of autonomies without distinctions" and was scared by "the drift towards a plural Spain"—in contrast to the policy that Rodríguez Zapatero was carrying out:[9]​.

On May 13, Joan Saura, Conseller of Institutional Relations and Participation and leader of the ICV, one of the three coalition parties in the "tripartite" government, wrote an article in the newspaper El País with the title "What does Catalonia want?":[10]​.

Regarding the specific objectives of the Statute, Joan Saura said that there were five:[10]​.

Although there was a quick agreement between the three parties that formed the Government of Catalonia and Convergència i Unió on issues such as the definition of Catalonia as a "nation", the duty to know the two official languages (Catalan and Spanish) or the creation of a Catalan constituency in the elections to the European Parliament, other issues such as the financing of the Generalitat, secularism in education or the extent to which historical rights were updated produced deep divisions that raised fears about the approval of the reform and that were not resolved until the last moment.

On July 8, 2005, the Parliament of Catalonia's report concluded its work and that same day the Popular Party announced that it did not support the project. Twenty days later it passed the process in committee of the Parliament of Catalonia, but without reaching the necessary two-thirds because CiU opposed the proposed financing model and defended the economic agreement. CiU did not lower its demands until its leader Artur Mas met in Madrid on September 19 with the president of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.[1]​.

Until the day before the final vote in the Parliament, which was held on September 30, 2005, the "tripartite" and CIU were negotiating until that day Pasqual Maragall and the head of the opposition of Catalonia Artur Mas closed an agreement in extremis on the financing of the Generalitat and secularism in education. That day and the previous day, the Titles of the Statute had been voted on and in some of the votes they did not have the support of the 42 deputies of the PSC, who doubted the constitutionality of some of the articles (which is why several Titles of the proposal only had the favorable votes of CiU and ERC, since they alone held the absolute majority in the Parliament, or of CiU, ERC and ICV),[1]​ but in the final vote On the 30th, the Statute was approved with the favorable votes of the PSC, ERC, ICV, and CiU, totaling 120 of the 135 deputies of the Parliament. The 15 deputies of the Popular Party voted against because, according to the leader of the PP in Catalonia Josep Piqué, the new Statute "modifies the nature of the State" and seeks to "distance Catalonia from Spain", while the leader of the independence party ERC Josep Lluís Carod Rovira presented it as a "hand extended to Spain". For his part, President Maragall once again stressed the definition of Spain as a "nation of nations" and considered the Statute as a commitment to a "federal, diverse or plural" Spain.[11]

As soon as the approval of the Statute by the Parliament of Catalonia was announced, the government spokesperson María Teresa Fernández de la Vega stated in Madrid: "We must guarantee that the final text is in accordance with the Constitution from A to Z, with the general interest and that of all citizens."[12]​.

The Statute project in the Cortes Generales (2005-2006)

When the draft statute was presented to the Congress of Deputies, various state and social institutions, from the General Council of the Judiciary or the Bank of Spain to the Catholic Church, the employers' association or the unions, showed their radical opposition to it. The Popular Party, for its part, demanded the holding of a referendum throughout Spain on the Statute, and began collecting signatures so that the Congress of Deputies would not admit the project for processing.[1][13]​.

On November 2, 2005, after the Board of the Congress of Deputies accepted the proposal for processing, against the criteria of the Popular Party, the Plenary of the same held the debate of consideration, in which the convergent Artur Mas, the socialist Manuela de Madre and the republican Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira participated, representing the Parliament of Catalonia. The President of the Government of Spain also intervened to express his favorable position on taking it into consideration. Thus, the Congress of Deputies decided to take into consideration the proposal by 197 votes in favor, 146 votes against, all of them from the PP, and one abstention.

Since then, its processing began in the Constitutional Commission of Congress, chaired by the former vice president of the Government, Alfonso Guerra, who commissioned a joint presentation between representatives of the aforementioned Commission and the Parliament of Catalonia to agree on an opinion to be subsequently submitted to the Plenary. From the beginning there was no unity of action between the four parties that had approved the text in Catalonia, which led to a bilateral negotiation between each party and the PSOE.

It soon became clear which were the most conflictive issues in the proposal presented by the Parliament of Catalonia: the definition of Catalonia as a "nation"; the "duty" of knowing Catalan, which equated it with Spanish in Catalonia; the creation of the Council of Justice of Catalonia; the new financing system; and the shielding of the powers of the Generalitat.[14]​.

On December 3, the PP called a rally at Puerta del Sol in Madrid in which its leader Mariano Rajoy gave a speech in which the phrases "We do not form a nation of nations" and "There is only one nation, the Spanish one" were the most applauded, and cheered with cries of "Spain, Spain!", by the tens of thousands of people attending the rally (200,000 according to the Community of Madrid).[15]

The political and social tension that the Statute was causing outside of Catalonia also reached the government party, the PSOE, and thus on the morning of Saturday, January 21, 2006, the federal committee of the PSOE urged its general secretary and president of the government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to close the debate on the Statute once and for all or to liquidate the process. In the afternoon of that same day, Zapatero summoned the leader of CiU Artur Mas and after six hours of debate, at the stroke of midnight, they reached an agreement on two of the most conflictive issues: the definition "Catalonia is a nation" and financing. Regarding the first question, they agreed to remove the proclamation of Catalonia as a "nation" from the articles and take it to the preamble where it would have no legal force, while article 1 would continue to define Catalonia as a "nationality." resolved by increasing the participation of the Generalitat in State taxes (from 33% to 50% of Personal Income Tax (Spain)); from 40% to 58% of special taxes; and from 35% to 50% of VAT), although they would be collected by the State Tax Agency, in addition to the Government's commitment to invest in Catalonia an amount equivalent to the weight of the Catalan economy in Spain as a whole. (18.5% of GDP), and that Catalonia would not lose positions in the classification of the autonomous communities by per capita income due to its contributions to the interterritorial solidarity fund (the so-called that applies in federal States, such as Germany).[16]​.

Crisis of the "tripartite", referendum, resignation of Maragall, appeal for unconstitutionality of the PP, Catalan elections and reissue of the "tripartite" (May-November 2006)

On May 11, 2006, as a consequence of ERC's lack of support for the Statute approved by the Congress of Deputies, the six republican councilors were "expelled" from the "tripartite" government of Catalonia. Their positions were assumed by members of the PSC.[17]​.

On Sunday, June 18, 2006, the referendum on the Statute was held in Catalonia in which the YES, defended by the PSC and ICV, won with 73.90% of the votes, while the NO, supported by ERC and the PP, remained at 20.76%, although abstention was 50.59% (there were 5.3% of blank votes). After knowing the results, the president of the Generalitat Pasqual Maragall, after stating "Dear Catalans: we have a Statute", urged ERC and the PP to "join the consensus" to develop the Statute. The leader of ERC Josep Lluís Carod Rovira accepted the "verdict of the Catalan people", but pointed out that the approval of the new Statute did not mean that "an end to the national aspirations of Catalonia", while the leader of the PP Mariano Rajoy considered the result of the referendum as a "failure" of "Zapatero's personal project", as he called the Statute, since "two out of three Catalans do not support [it]", adding to continuation: "What requires a minimum of patriotism and common sense is to paralyze this operation to liquidate the Spanish nation."[18]​.

The approval of the Statute became a "bitter victory"[19]​ for Pasqual Maragall since a few days after the referendum was held he announced that he would no longer be the socialist candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat in the next Catalan elections, apparently under pressure from his own party, the PSC. "I am leaving with my objectives accomplished and to give way to a new generation," declared Maragall. His replacement was going to be José Montilla, first secretary of the PSC and Minister of Industry of the Rodríguez Zapatero government.[20]​[21]​[22]​.

On July 31, 2006, the Popular Party presented to the Constitutional Court an appeal of unconstitutionality "Recurso de unconstitucionalidad (Spain)") against the new Statute of Catalonia, in which 114 of the 223 articles and 12 provisions of the same were appealed. Three days earlier Mariano Rajoy had listed the eight main elements of unconstitutionality that his party saw in the Statute: that Catalonia is a nation, since "from the constitutional point of view, there is no nation other than the Spanish nation, holder of sovereignty", and to that nation "the nationalities and regions that make up its indissoluble unity cannot be compared" and whose statutes are "a power derived from the Constitution"; the "privileged" treatment of the Catalan language derived from considering its knowledge as a duty and from "the exclusive consideration of Catalan as the language of education", which on the other hand, goes against "the right of parents to choose the language in which they want their children to study"; that there be "different rights and duties" for Catalans than for the rest of Spaniards, because this "goes against the equality of all Spaniards"; the Judicial Power for Catalonia, because "it breaks with the judicial unity of Spain"; the distribution of powers between Catalonia and the State; the principle of bilaterality "which privileges Catalonia and lays the foundations for an asymmetric confederal model" and supposes "an inequality that is unacceptable in the Constitution"; the international relations of Catalonia, and its own financing system when this must be agreed between all the autonomies.[23]​.

Preamble

Some media pointed out that in the preamble of the Statute drafted by the Parliament of Catalonia, the right of self-determination of Catalonia was implicitly claimed and that in the historical overview that appeared in it, reference was made to the loss of "national freedoms" in 1714, to the creation of the Commonwealth of Catalonia in 1914 and to the Statutes of Autonomy of 1932 and 1979, but not to the Spanish Constitutions from which the Mancomunitat and the two statutes derived, that is, the Constitutions of 1876, 1931 and 1978, respectively. It was also highlighted that the preamble was the only part of the Statute in which reference was made to Spain (three times), without resorting to the terms "State" or "Spanish State", as was done in the articles (except the two times that Spain was mentioned to refer to the international relations of the Generalitat); but even in that case the mentions of Spain were made to highlight its "plurality" (relationship of Catalonia "with the people of Spain"; "Catalonia considers that Spain is a plurinational State"; Catalonia "coexists fraternally with the people of Spain").[14]​.

During its processing in the Congress of Deputies, the preamble was completely modified (and reduced), changing, among others, the statement that "Catalonia considers that Spain is a plurinational State" to "a State that recognizes and respects the diversity of identities of the people of Spain" and deleting the phrase "the vocation and right of Catalonia to freely determine its future as a people." It was also stressed that "the self-government of Catalonia is based on the Constitution" and that the "historical rights of the Catalan people" are framed within it. Finally, the term "nation" was reduced to the text agreed between Rodríguez Zapatero and Artur Mas to remove from the articles the statement "Catalonia is a nation": "The Parliament of Catalonia, collecting the sentiment and will of the citizens of Catalonia, has defined, in a large majority, Catalonia as a nation. The Spanish Constitution, in its second article, recognizes the national reality of Catalonia as a nationality.

The two preambles are reproduced below, indicating in bold the changes introduced by the Cortes Generales:

Preliminary title

The meaning of the Preliminary Title was explained by Joan Saura, Conseller of Institutional Relations and Participation and leader of ICV, one of the three coalition parties in the "tripartite" government, in an article published in the newspaper El País on May 13, 2005 with the title "What does Catalonia want?":[10]​.

Without a doubt, the most controversial issue of the Preliminary Title was the statement in article 1.1: "Catalonia is a nation." Already during the processing in the Catalan Parliament, the parties that supported this wording asked the Consultative Council of the Generalitat of Catalonia for an opinion, and this body understood that the terms "nation" and "nationality" (the latter included in the Constitution) were "identical and interchangeable", so it saw no impediment for it to appear in the articles, but as long as the definition of "nation" was not related to the "attribution of sovereignty", because then it would clash with the article. 2 of the Constitution that only recognizes a single nation, the "Spanish nation".[28] Another very controversial topic of the Preliminary Title was the "duty" to know Catalan established in article 6.[29]​.

This Title was also modified during its processing in the Congress of Deputies. The statement in article 1 "Catalonia is a nation" was deleted (and taken to the preamble with another wording). In article 5, "historical rights" were recognized only "in relation to civil law, language, culture, their protection in the educational field and the institutional system", which was reinforced with the deletion of the first additional provision which said that the "Catalan people" did not renounce "the rights that, as such, correspond to them by virtue of their history, which can be updated in accordance with the provisions of the first additional provision of the Constitution." In article 6, the statement "Catalan is the official language of Catalonia" was clarified with the subsection "So is Spanish" and that "all people in Catalonia have the right to use and the right and duty to know the two official languages" was modified by "all people have the right to use the two official languages" and citizens "have the right and duty to know them", adding then that there can be no discrimination "due to the use of one language or another. Finally, the title of article 8 "National symbols" was changed to "Symbols of Catalonia", although the expression "national symbols" was maintained in the article, but after emphasizing that Catalonia had been "defined as a nationality in article 1", not as a "nation".[27]​.

In the Preliminary Title, which consists of 14 articles, the Cortes Generales introduced the following changes to the project approved by the Parliament of Catalonia (in bold the changes;crossed out, the subsection of article 5 declared unconstitutional in the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006):

Title I. Rights, duties and guiding principles

Joan Saura also explained in the cited article why a declaration of rights, duties and guiding principles was included:[10]​.

The list of rights and duties approved by the Parliament of Catalonia presented some new features compared to the one that appears in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Article 20 recognized the right of all people to "live the process of their death with dignity." In 21 it was said that in public schools "education is secular", although the right of parents to have their children receive "religious and moral training that is in accordance with their convictions" was recognized. In another article, the right of families in poverty to "a guaranteed minimum income of citizenship that assures them the minimum of a decent life" was recognized. In 40, the obligation of public powers to guarantee the "legal, economic and social protection of the various types of family", and their right to "have children", as well as "the equality of the different stable couple unions", regardless of their sexual orientation. Another article established the promotion of policies from a "gender perspective", and another the establishment of "a reception regime for immigrants." Finally, regarding linguistic rights, non-discrimination for reasons of language was recognized, and special mention was made of the preservation of the "historical memory of Catalonia", "permanent symbol of tolerance and dignity of democratic values".[29]​.

This title was one of those that suffered the least changes during its processing in the Congress of Deputies. The main one was that the protection of all the rights included in the new text will only be binding on the Catalan administrations and not on the central one. Thus, article 37.1, in its first version, stated that "the rights recognized by chapters I, II and III bind all the public powers that act in Catalonia and, in accordance with the nature of each right, the individuals", while the final wording was as follows: "The rights recognized by chapters I, II and III bind all the public powers of Catalonia and, in accordance with the nature of each right, the individuals." On the other hand, Unió Democràtica de Catalunya managed to add, along with the recognition of a woman's right "to her own body" or the right to a dignified death: "The rights that this Statute recognizes for the citizens of Catalonia can be extended to other people, in the terms established by law."[27]​.

This Title is made up of chapters I (Rights and duties in the civil and social fields; articles 15 to 28), II (Rights in the political and administrative fields; articles 29 to 31), III (Linguistic rights and duties; articles 32 to 36), IV (Guarantee of Statutory Rights; articles 37 to 38) and V (; articles 39 to 54). The changes introduced by the Cortes Generales in the project presented by the Parliament of Catalonia were the following (changes in ):

Title II. Of the Institutions

In this Title, as in the previous one, practically no changes were introduced during the processing of the project in the Congress of Deputies. The main one was the statement that "the president of the Generalitat is appointed by the King", while the text agreed by the Parliament of Catalonia, although it mentioned the same formula, then established that "the appointment proposal is endorsed by the president of the Parliament and by the president of the State Government." Regarding the personal status of the president of the Generalitat, the section was eliminated that maintained that, "for the purposes of precedence and protocol in Catalonia, the president of the Generalitat has the preeminent position, immediately after the King."[27]​.

This Title consists of chapter I (Parliament; articles 55 to 66), II (The President of the Generalitat; article 67), III (The Government and Administration of the Generalitat; articles 68 to 72), IV (Relations between Parliament and the Government; articles 73 to 75), V (Other institutions of the Generalitat; articles 76 to 82), VI (Local government; articles 83 to 93) and VII (Aran's own institutional organization; article 94). The changes introduced by the Cortes Generales in the project presented by the Parliament of Catalonia were the following (in bold the changes; crossed out section 4 of article 76 and the subsection of article 78, declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in 2010):

Title III. Of the judicial power in Catalonia

In his investiture speech Pasqual Maragall proposed that the new Statute include[5]​.

The project approved by the Parliament of Catalonia included as main novelties, the determination that the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia was the last judicial instance in Catalonia, with the only exception of the unification of doctrine that corresponded to the Supreme Court "Supreme Court (Spain)"), and the creation of the Council of Justice of Catalonia as the governing body of the judicial power in Catalonia, assuming a large part of the functions of the General Council of the Judiciary. Another novelty was the figure of the senior prosecutor of Catalonia, as well as the obligation for judges and prosecutors assigned to Catalonia to have adequate knowledge of Catalan. It also created its own body of officials at the service of the administration of justice in Catalonia.[30]​.

This Title also included that to guarantee that no discrimination occurred for linguistic reasons and that legal acts carried out in either of the two languages ​​were fully valid, "without being able to claim ignorance" or requiring the translation of documents, judges, prosecutors, notaries, registrars and judicial officials stationed in Catalonia "must prove that they have an adequate and sufficient level of knowledge of the official languages."[29]​.

This Title was modified at various points during its processing in the Congress of Deputies. Although the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) maintained its status as the last judicial instance in this community, it lost the jurisdiction in commercial law included in the initial proposal and the cassation function in matters of state law. The Council of Justice of Catalonia was also maintained as the governing body of the judiciary and acting as a deconcentrated body of the General Council of the Judiciary, but the clause was added that this will be so "in accordance with the provisions of the Organic Law of the Judiciary." Likewise, its composition will be determined by an organic law, although it was maintained that its members will be appointed by the Catalan Parliament. The way of appointing the president of the TSJC was also modified, who will also be the president of the Justice Council, since this body will only "participate" in his appointment, while in the initial project he was appointed from a shortlist of the Council. The same happened with the chief prosecutor of Catalonia, who will be appointed in accordance with the Statute of the Public Prosecutor's Office, while in the initial text he arose from the shortlist proposed by the Catalan Government. The provision that the functions of the chief prosecutor could be expanded with a law of the Catalan Parliament was also suppressed, although the final text provides for the possibility that the Generalitat "may enter into agreements" with the prosecutor's office.[27]​.

Title IV. Of the powers

Joan Saura wrote about the powers in the article published in the newspaper El País on May 13, 2005 already cited:[10]​.

During the processing in the Congress of Deputies this Title underwent important modifications, starting with the definition of exclusive jurisdiction, from which the adjective "exclusive" was deleted, as a result of the agreement reached between Rodríguez Zapatero and Artur Mas. Likewise, the section that referred to the Generalitat assuming the management of state powers by appealing to article 150.2 of the Constitution, which allows the government to "transfer or delegate" powers of the State to the autonomous communities, was also deleted. In this way, a good number of powers disappeared from the Statute, such as the management of "telecommunications infrastructure located in Catalonia", the possibility of issuing licenses to drive vehicles, the "selection of foreign workers in their countries of origin destined for Catalonia" or the management of the Barcelona airport, one of the main demands of the Catalan parties. Two other powers most coveted by the Catalan parties were also suppressed: the "authorization for the calling of popular consultations via referendum" and the possibility of having Catalan sports teams.[27]​.

Title V. Institutional relations of the Generalitat

In his investiture speech on December 15, 2003, Pasqual Maragall announced that he wanted the Generalitat to be able to "represent the State, as happens in other federal countries in Europe, in those matters that fall under its jurisdiction."[5]​ About this issue Joan Saura wrote:[10]​.

According to the proposal approved by the Parliament of Catalonia, a Generalitat-State Bilateral Commission was created as a permanent body for relations between the two administrations, and in which any conflicts of powers that may arise will be resolved. It was also established that the Generalitat participated in the appointment of the members of the Constitutional Court "Constitutional Tribunal (Spain)") and the General Council of the Judiciary, and appointed representatives in various organizations such as the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission, the National Telecommunications Market Commission"), the Court of Accounts, the Economic and Social Council "Economic and Social Council (Spain)") or the Data Protection Agency").[30]

Regarding foreign policy, the participation of the Generalitat in international organizations that deal with issues that are the exclusive competence of the Generalitat or that deal with matters of relevant interest to Catalonia, such as UNESCO, was recognized.[30]​.

This Title underwent several modifications during its processing in the Congress of Deputies. The change that some media highlighted most was the suppression of the consideration of Catalonia as an electoral constituency in the elections to the European Parliament.[27]​.

This Title consists of chapter I (Relations of the Generalitat with the State and with other Autonomous Communities; articles 174 to 183), II (Relations of the Generalitat with the European Union; articles 184 to 192) and III (External action of the Generalitat; articles 193 to 200). The changes introduced by the Cortes Generales to the project approved by the Parliament of Catalonia are the following (changes in bold):

Title VI. Of the financing of the Generalitat

In his investiture speech before the Parliament of Catalonia on December 15, 2003, Pasqual Maragall established the objective of his government:[5]​.

For his part, Joan Saura, leader of ICV, wrote in May 2005:[10]​.

The proposal approved by the Parliament of Catalonia attributed to the Tax Agency of Catalonia the collection of all taxes paid in Catalonia, and then the Generalitat would contribute to the State an amount for the services it provides in Catalonia and as a concept of solidarity with the rest of the autonomous communities. That amount would be determined by a Joint State-General Commission on Economic and Fiscal Affairs. Furthermore, the Generalitat would have regulatory capacity over all taxes collected in Catalonia and would participate in setting tax rates and exemptions, and reductions and deductions on the quota. The new financing model was "shielded" by establishing the principle of subsidiarity, according to which in the event of a conflict between what is established in the Statute and state regulations, the former would prevail.[30]​.

When the project approved by the Parliament of Catalonia reached the Congress of Deputies, the new financing model became one of the main obstacles to reaching a consensus. It was the agreement reached in La Moncloa between the President of the Government Rodríguez Zapatero and the leader of CiU Artur Mas that allowed this issue to be unblocked. The agreement, which would be brought to the Statute, consisted of increasing the participation of the Generalitat in State taxes (from 33% to 50% of Personal Income Tax (Spain)); from 40% to 58% of excise taxes; and from 35% to 50% of VAT), in exchange for the renunciation of the Catalan Tax Agency collecting them. Furthermore, the Spanish Government committed to investing in Catalonia an amount equivalent to the weight of its economy in Spain as a whole (18.5% of GDP), and that Catalonia would not lose positions in the classification of the autonomous communities by per capita income due to its contributions to the interterritorial solidarity fund (the so-called principle of ordinality that is applied in federal states, such as Germany).[16]​.

Thus, the differences between the initial proposal of the Parliament of Catalonia and the one finally approved by the Spanish Cortes were significant, since the Catalan Tax Agency would only manage "the taxes of the Generalitat" and not "all taxes borne in Catalonia", as initially proposed. The transferred taxes will be collected by the State Tax Agency, although the possibility of creating a consortium "in which the two agencies would participate equally" was left open. Another important point was the suppression of the statement that the greater fiscal effort carried out by the Catalans "must translate into greater financial capacity and greater income for the Generalitat."[27]​.

Title VII. Of the reform of the Statute

This Title consists of two articles (222 and 223). The only differences between the proposal of the Parliament of Catalonia and the final wording approved by the Cortes Generales was the following (change in bold):

Additional, transitional and final provisions

The proposal of the Parliament of Catalonia consisted of 11 additional provisions, but the Cortes Generales deleted five and added nine, so that finally there are 15 that appear in the Statute. As for the rest of the provisions proposed by the Parliament of Catalonia, the Cortes Generales deleted the third transitional provision (maintaining the other two), maintained the repealing provision and deleted a final provision (maintaining the other four). The differences between the proposal of the Parliament of Catalonia and the final wording approved by the Cortes Generales are the following (changes in bold):

Background

After coming into force on June 18, 2006, the Statute was appealed for considering it unconstitutional "Recurso de unconstitucionalidad (Spain)") on seven occasions by seven different instances: the Popular Party through the signature of its deputies and senators against 187 articles and provisions;[31]​ the Ombudsman against 112 articles and four additional provisions, and five autonomous communities (Community of Murcia against the article 117, La Rioja "La Rioja (Spain)") against 12 articles and seven additional provisions, Government of Aragon against one additional provision, Generalidad Valenciana against eight articles and four transitional provisions, Government of the Balearic Islands against what is established in the Statute on the Archive of the Crown of Aragon).[32]​.

Resolution

On June 28, 2010, by means of Sentence 31/2010, the Constitutional Court, before the unconstitutionality appeal "Recurso de unconstitucionalidad (Spain)") presented by deputies of the Popular Party,[31]​ resolved by six votes in favor and four against the constitutionality of most of the text, noting the "legal ineffectiveness" of the Preamble (which included the term "nation" when referring to Catalonia), although the ruling maintains the definition of Catalonia as a "nation", and declared 14 articles unconstitutional.[33]​[34]​[35]​.

The presentation was finally written by the president, María Emilia Casas, and the vote was carried out by blocks: the first regarding the Preamble, in which it was resolved by 6 votes in favor and 4 against to maintain the term "nation", although it was warned of its lack of interpretive legal effectiveness, since it is not part of the normative text; The second block affected the articles to be declared unconstitutional, with a majority of 8 judges against 2 voting for the unconstitutionality of 14 of them; The other two blocks, which were the precepts adjusted to the Constitution and the interpretation of the articles on which there was conformity, were endorsed by six votes to four.[33] Four of the magistrates presented a dissenting vote: Ramón Rodríguez Arribas, Jorge Rodríguez-Zapata"), Vicente Conde") and Javier Delgado.[36]​[34]​.

Unconstitutional articles

The Constitutional Court declared 14 articles unconstitutional:[33]​[37]​[38]​.

Articles subject to interpretation given by the Constitutional Court

Those articles that the ruling indicated for interpretation must be precisely according to the criteria of the Court itself, what is called "conclusive legal basis")":[39]​[34]​.

Reactions: 10-J Demonstration

On July 10, 2010, a demonstration took place in Barcelona, ​​with the motto "Som una vivir, nosaltres decidim",[40]​ against the resolution of the Constitutional Court, with the support of all political parties in the Parliament of Catalonia except the PPC and Ciutadans. The attendance was one and a half million according to the organizers and one million one hundred thousand people according to the Urban Guard.

The six presidents and former presidents of the Generalitat and Parliament were present at the head: José Montilla, Ernest Benach, Pasqual Maragall, Jordi Pujol, Joan Rigol and Heribert Barrera. At the end of the demonstration, there was an attempted attack on José Montilla,[41]​ who had to leave the march protected.[40]​.