If a referendum were to take place, it should not just require a simple majority. It hardly seems just that such a profund decision could be undertaken with 50%+1 result. The level of terror from ETA thugs could easily manipulate the tally. Think how difficult it is to amend the US Constitution, if it were an easy task we would be amending our Constitution every day. In order to assure that the result was something more than just a whim, Spain should at least require 2/3 approval. Can you imagine a situation where there is an even division between the pro and con voters, we could see a scene in Bilbao like in Dade County, Florida. But instead of lawyers arguing, we could see election officials being killed by ETA.