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The Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (Catalan: Estatut d'Autonomia de Catalunya; also Statute of Sau, Estatut de Sau, after the location where the statute was first made) is a constitutional law defining the region of Catalonia as an autonomous community within the Kingdom of Spain. It was promulgated on 18 September 1979. It is one of seventeen such statutes granted, in various forms and capabilities, to the different autonomous communities of Spain since the Spanish transition to democracy of the 1970s. On 18 June 2006 a referendum altering the statute to expand the authority of the Catalan government was approved; it became effective on 9 August 2006.
Catalonia first obtained a Statute of Autonomy in 1932, during the Second Spanish Republic. This law was abolished by General Francisco Franco after the Spanish Civil War, largely because Catalonia had been a region opposed to the Nationalist forces, and during his rule Catalan culture, language, and self-rule were harshly suppressed.