La Rioja: the Autonomous Community

Regions of Spain
La Rioja: the Autonomous Community
By m.p. - Oct 27, 2007 - 11:49 AM

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Although one of the smallest of Spain's regions, La Rioja is well known because of its famous wines

Lying in the North of Spain, La Rioja is one of the smallest of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities, ranking sixteenth in the list. The region covers an area of 5,045 square kilometres, and borders with the Basque Country to the North, Navarra to the northeast and East, Aragón in the southeast, and Castilla y León to the South, West and northwest.
It makes up just 1% of total Spanish territory.

Almost half the region’s total population of 306,377 live in Logroño City (pop. 147,036), which is both the regional and the provincial capital.

Formerly known as the province of Logroño, the name was changed to La Rioja in 1980, after the vast majority of its inhabitants and municipalities voted in favour of autonomy under the terms of the 1978 Constitution approved in Spain’s transition to democracy.

The region’s first Statute of Autonomy was drawn up by an assembly created for the purpose, known as ‘la Asamblea de los 32,’ and composed of the 24 provincial deputies and the eight MPs. The Statute became known as the ‘Statute of San Millán,’ when it was approved by the province of La Rioja in 1981, and signed in the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla.

La Rioja became the uni-provincial autonomous community of La Rioja in 1982, when the Statute of Autonomy was approved by the Spanish government.

One of the politicians who worked on the Statute was to become La Rioja’s first regional President: Luis Javier Rodríguez Moroy, of the UCD Party. He later went on to found the Partido Riojano Progresista – the precursor to today’s Partido Riojano.

The later years of regional government have been dominated by the Partido Popular, who have been in power in the region since 1995. Pedro Sanz was voted in again for a fourth mandate in the 2007 regional election, although the poll on 27th May brought little change on the 2003 result.
All parties held onto the same number of seats as in the previous regional government, despite an increase in the Socialist Party’s share of the vote, and a decrease for the PP.
The current composition in the regional parliament is 17 seats to the Partido Popular, 14 to PSOE 14, and two to the Partido Riojano.