Chapter 673 - 313: New Administrative Divisions (2)

On March 20, 1885, the Spanish Government officially announced the establishment of the Barcelona Special City, referred to as Barcelona City, directly under the jurisdiction of the Spanish Government.

Barcelona City not only includes the original urban area and suburban countryside but also the Barcelona Industrial Zone located more than ten kilometers from the urban area.

Of course, the port is also included. The new Barcelona Special City is much larger than the original Barcelona, but its area is smaller than the Barcelona Region, covering around 2000 square kilometers.

Officially, the Barcelona Special City has a population of 630,000, but when including the large number of workers who have not settled in Barcelona, the permanent population of the entire Barcelona has actually exceeded 800,000.

Although Barcelona is a special city, this so-called city does not differ in administrative level from other regions.

Barcelona City Government’s level is equivalent to that of the regional government of other areas, and the City Council’s level is equivalent to the regional councils of other areas.

Of course, with the elevation in administrative level, it will be more challenging for ordinary officials to assume the role of Mayor of Barcelona.

The position of Mayor of Barcelona will become a priority target for various political parties under the Spanish Cabinet, just like the Mayor of Madrid.

The formation of the special city was swift, after all, Barcelona’s City Government and City Council were already in place and just needed their levels raised.

The current mayor, Carlo, is not planning to be replaced, waiting instead for the next election of the Barcelona City Government to make changes, which will also help stabilize order in Barcelona.

After the announcement of the establishment of the Barcelona Special City, Spain also promptly commenced political administrative reforms for other regions.

First, all regions were renamed as states, regional governments renamed as state governments, and regional councils renamed as state councils.

As administrative states forming Spain, each state has the authority to handle its own affairs and enact laws for its own state.

However, the laws of each state must adhere to the Spanish Constitution and must not contradict it in any way. State councils have the right to elect the governor and other officials of the state government, but the appointment of the governor must be approved by the Lower House and the Spanish Government.

This also represents a significant reduction in the powers of regional officials in Spain in the future, and the control of the Cabinet Government over various regions will increase substantially.

Simply put, this is a means of centralization, transferring more power to the Spanish Cabinet Government, which now also has the ability to oversee state governments.

As a result, the performance assessment system for officials implemented by Spain will become even more significant.

The Cabinet Government can even dismiss governors with poor assessments at any time, requiring only a vote in the Lower House, without needing to consider the attitudes of state councils.

Of course, in the appointment of governors, the attitude of state councils must still be considered.

However, simply possessing the power of dismissal increases the Cabinet Government’s control over the regions, and there will no longer be any independent kingdoms within the Spanish states.

In just a few days, the Spanish Cabinet Government announced a relatively comprehensive administrative reform plan.

In this plan, the regions where the land area remains unchanged include: Galicia, Extremadura, Andalusia, Aragon, Madrid, Balearic Islands, and Canary Islands.

Regions where land area changes include: Asturias, Cantabria, Basque, Navarre, La Rioja, Catalonia, Valencia, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, and Murcia.

The specific plan is as follows:

The five states with smaller populations in the north were reduced to two states; Asturias and Cantabria were merged into Asturias State, with a combined population slightly exceeding one million, truly resembling an administrative state.

Navarre, Basque, and La Rioja were merged into Navarre State, with the capital still being the original capital of the Navarre Region, Pamplona.

According to convention, the merged state should have been named Basque State, as the land and population of Basque State were among the largest among the three states.

Especially in terms of population, the population of Basque State surpassed the combined population of the other two states, logically making it the core area of the new administrative division.

But considering the impact of continuing the Basque name on the stability of Spain, coupled with Navarre being a name with a long history, the new administrative division is still named Navarre State.

Even if the Basque people were unwilling, they could only grit their teeth and accept it.

It is worth mentioning that, in order to reduce the proportion of Basques in Navarre State, Carlo also transferred a part of the land originally belonging to Leon, specifically the easternmost section, to the new Navarre State.

This also pushed the population of Navarre State to over 1.5 million, with only about 700,000 being Basques, not even half.

Since they are less than half, the Basques naturally have no right to demand the government rename the new state as Basque.

In the future, as Navarre State develops, the proportion of Basques will continue to decrease, and Spain’s control over Navarre State will continue to rise.

In other words, with the changes in administrative divisions, the Basques can no longer exert control over Navarre.

The changes in Catalonia, needless to say, apart from losing Barcelona, the rest of the land in Catalonia remains unchanged.