Today the Senate approved the statute which will govern the future state of Catalan without the votes of the ERC party who has opposed the bill on the grounds that it was not sufficiently independent.

Those for the Catalan state 128 those against (PSOE,  CiU,  PSC, ICV PNV, CC,  IU  and BNG).

The president of Government Jose Luis Zapatero said that it was an collective agreement and success for the Catalan state and Spain.

The statute permits a referendum to now take place on the 18 of June.