Catalonia to become Europe’s most independent region

The ballot ushered in a round of rewriting of the autonomy charters for the 17 regions that make up Spain. The governing parties in Galicia, the third most independently minded region after the Basque country and Catalonia, were yesterday reported to have come to an agreement on the basis of their new charter.

Several Spanish newspapers, quoting unnamed officials, reported yesterday that Mr Zapatero was planning to begin direct talks with the armed Basque separatist group Eta within days. That decision came three months after Eta declared a "permanent ceasefire", and as Mr Zapatero felt his position would be boosted by the result in Catalonia.

A rewriting of the Basque charters was expected to accompany a definitive future peace agreement.

El País newspaper yesterday said that the government's timetable for the peace process would see Mr Zapatero announce some time in the next fortnight that the government was opening talks with Eta. That would in turn be followed by talks between the Socialists and the banned, Eta-supporting, Batasuna party. These would lead to Batasuna becoming legal again, though possibly with a different name, in time to take part in municipal elections next year. A separate set of negotiations between all the political parties in the Basque country, including Batasuna, would then follow.