Revista d'Estudis Autonòmics i Federals (Apr 2006)
¿QUÉ REFORMA CONSTITUCIONAL?
Abstract
The article analyzes both the draft constitutional reform issued by the Spanishcentral government and the advisory opinion on that draft that was issuedby the Consejo de Estado after request of the former (The Consejo deEstado is the highest legal advisory body at the service of central government1).The author analyzes the aspects of the Consejo de Estado’s advisory opinionthat deal with territorial issues, and that, as he argues, could consequentlydefine the bases for a further development of the territorial model of state.In this sense and first of all, he criticizes central government’s objective toleave the final decision about the scope and limits of the constitutional reformin the hands of the Consejo de Estado, since the latter was clearly more interestedin establishing limits both to the open character of the territorial modeland to the asymmetrical territorial organization of the state. By doingso, the Consejo de Estado‘s advisory opinion tends to legitimize a territorial model of state which does not result from the previous and explicit constituentpact of 1978, but from the centralizing trends that have featured theactual developments of the political and legal system.Secondly, the author states that the Consejo de Estado went far beyondcentral government’s request of advice since it wound up elaborating thecomplete programme of political articulation of the state. Thus, the advisoryopinion deals with a wide range of aspects which go from minor aspects suchas the introduction of the names of the autonomous communities within theSpanish Constitution, to major and crucial aspects such as the proposal toeliminate the principle disposition, as a new system of limitation of powers,and as the application of uniformity among the Autonomous Communities,all this while ignoring the constitutional explicit mention to the differencesbetween nationalities and regions. Consequently, all that means, accordingto the author, that the Spanish legal and political system is faced with twocontradictory fronts: on the one hand, that represented by the processesleading to the reform of the Statutes of Autonomy that aim at increasingthe powers of the Autonomous Communities and at claiming the recognitionof the inherent identifying signs of the latter; and, on the other hand,that process leading to a constitutional reform that aims at ensuring homogeneityand uniformity in the exercise of the political power of the AutonomousCommunities.
