The Spanish Regions' Nuclear Option

The document that sets out the Spanish Constitution conveys an astonishing pretension of antiquity. Colourful, florid heraldry meets a robust calligraphy in bestowing on the Spanish Kingdom the "Constitución Española". The document is only 34 years old, but it could as easily be many centuries old. Of its contents, certain aspects had appeared in previous versions, one of which was the right to regional autonomy. The Republicans of 1931 introduced the concept, but they never had the time to implement it.

The constitutional impulse in granting autonomy was largely one of tackling the centuries-old claims of historical states within Spain - Catalonia, The Basque Country and Galicia. As soon as the autonomous cat was let out of the bag when the Constitution was in its drafting, Andalucía discovered a previously incoherent claim on quasi-statehood, and the autonomy that followed, which led to the creation of the 17 regions that included the Balearics (plus eventually the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla), became inevitable, as much by default in satisfying the claims of the historical states as by having been conceived as a laudable system of decentralised administration.

This decentralisation has been held up as an almost perfect governmental system. Or rather, it once was held up as being so. The perfect system cannot exist, and it clearly no longer does in Spain. Regional debt has been the underbelly that has softened Spain's finances to the point that the belly, starved of monetary nutrition, has suffered a prolapse. Valencia needs a bailout, so does Murcia, and Catalonia has admitted that it might do as well.

Prescriptions for tackling regional debt are as many as those for dealing with the debts of Spanish banks, and many are simplistic in that they disregard the institutional barriers to effecting them. One, that of just doing away with the regions, would, apart from the practical nightmare it would entail, run up against the  calligraphy of the constitutional "carta magna".

The Spanish Constitution is not beyond change, but changing it in any fundamental way would be hugely difficult, and it would require a constitutional nuclear option if the current system of autonomy were to be done away with completely.

However, the Constitution makes it clear that the autonomous communities are not above intervention that goes beyond simply handing them a bailout. Article 155 of the Constitution states that if an autonomous community does not fulfil its obligations or acts in a way that seriously prejudices the general interests of Spain, the government may take measures necessary to compel communities to meet these obligations.

Article 156 grants the regions financial autonomy, so long, however, as this complies with "principles of co-ordination with the state treasury and the solidarity amongst all Spaniards". It is these two articles which give the national government authority to in effect take over the financial running of an autonomous region, but neither establishes a principle by which a region could be merely done away with.

Theoretically, Madrid could decide that all the regions are acting in ways that are prejudicial to national interests. Rather as the establishing of the autonomous regions under the Constitution avoided complications that a piecemeal approach might have created, so a uniform approach to financial intervention might in a curious way be more palatable. But whether intervention were on a case-by-case basis or across the board, the consequences would be the same. With financial autonomy stripped away, the regions would have a diminished reason to exist. The structure of regionalism wouldn't necessarily collapse, but it would be severely weakened.

The political fallout from intervention could, though, be dramatic. A regional president and government may well feel compelled to resign, but who would wish to replace them, unless there was some assurance that financial autonomy could be regained? More than this, however, is the potential for an undermining of the Spanish state and kingdom, always rather shaky in any event because of those historical claims. Which would bring the Catalonia issue in particular right back into the frame. Catalonia may be hugely in debt and so would seem mad to wish not to possibly avail itself of the new national fund to bail out the regions, but it has also long been one of Spain's principal providers, if not the principal provider.

Economic crisis has demanded a hell of a lot of soul-searching as regards Spain's entire system of public administration. One fancies we are nearing the end game, but the question is what this end game will be. The Constitution's calligraphy is suddenly looking less robust.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.