Farewell to the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom - The Political map of Europe faces changes

Farewell to the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom - The Political map of Europe faces changes

Basque Country - independence referendum likely


A Basque Government referendum Bill was placed before the Basque

 Government on 29th May, 2008, that could be the first step towards the

 Basque Country voting for independence from the Spanish state in 2010.


In a move that marks the beginning of what could possibly be the first

of several referendums on independence over the coming years in Western

Europe, including one in Scotland, the Basque Prime Minister, Juan

Jose Ibarretxe, presented the Bill to the Basque Parliament President

Izaskun Bilbao. The formal presentation took place before the Basque

Parliament in Gasteiz/Vitoria and the wording of the Bill is planned

to be debated in the Parliament on 27th June 2008 and no corrections

will be allowed. If agreed, the Bill will be put to popular vote on

October 25th 2008 and Ibarretxe has stated that he expects the Basque

Parliament to give the Bill their total support.


However, the Spanish Socialist Government in Madrid, headed by Spain's

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has said that it will

seek a court order to prevent the vote going ahead if the Bill is

approved on 27th June. Ibarretxe's decision to propose the Bill comes

after negotiations between Zapatero and Ibarretxe broke down over

the last couple of weeks, with Ibarretxe stating that the Spanish

PM did not want to negotiate with the Basque institutions. Ibarretxe

said in a statement:

"We want to have the right to decide and the right to live together

in peace."


A Referendum on independence is also planned for Scotland in 2010

and in Catalunya on 2014.

The political map of Europe has seen much change in recent years with the

break up of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic,

the crumbling of the former Yugoslavia into smaller states including Serbia, Croatia,

Montenegro and so on and the newly emergent nations following the collapse

of the Soviet Union.

Many might view this process with sadness but former countries which were

combined have go on to prove themselves very able to manage their own affairs as in

the case of Sweden and Norway which were united until 1905. These nations have never

looked back so bringing a sense of inevitability to the process and an ever closer

step to a 'Europe of 100 nations' forseen in an early European Union document.