SPAIN: Catalans in control
published: Monday | June 19, 2006

BARCELONA, SPAIN (AP):

The wealthy semiautonomous Catalonia region gained sweeping new powers to run its affairs yesterday, as voters approved a blueprint that has inflamed passions around Spain and drawn warnings that the central government could end up weak and meaningless.

With 91 per cent of the votes counted, 74 per cent of voters approved the blueprint, known here as the statute, and just under 21 per cent said no, the Catalan government said. Turnout was about 49 per cent.

"The citizens have decided to open a new era with more strength, more acknowledgement of the Catalan national reality, more areas of jurisdiction, more resources and more capacity to intervene in Spanish and European policy," said Jose Montilla, the No. 2 official in the Catalan branch of the ruling Socialist Party, and also the Spanish Industry Minister.