| Description |
On March 9, 1980, elections were held in the Basque provinces of Alava, Guipuscoa and Vizcaya, and on March 20 in the Catalan provinces of Barcelona, Gerona, Lerida and Tarragona, to elect regional parliaments for the first time since the fall of Franco. After a long and sometimes bloody fight, regional autonomy finally became a reality for the people of Catalonia and Euskadi (the Basque country). The contrast in the two regions is striking in terms of the methods used to obtain autonomy. Similar contrasts exist in the causes and goals of the respective movements. Some residents of the Basque region, for example, continue in their violent revolt against the Spanish state in hopes of eventually gaining outright independence. This interesting and important aspect of Spanish regionalism will be dealt with in detail in subsequent chapters. |
