All entries for Thursday 02 November 2006

Elections in Catalunya (continued)

Writing about web page http://www.elperiodico.com

Yesterday, on the first of November, Cataláns voted for their semi-autonomous parliament.

In the statistic posted here, you can see the results. The PSC (Catalan Socialist Party, directly affiliated with the current Madrid government of Zapatero), this time lost its comfortable position of guaranteed leadership in the government, whereas CiU (Convergencia i Unió, right-of-centre moderate Catalanists) gains a small majority with 31.52%. (Which, incidentally, in the UK is enough for Labour to rule alone.)

Interesting to note is that CiU, before the elections, made a firm promise never to go into coalition with the Partido Popular, a right-wing party which is much-hated by the leftist bloc here in Catalunya. In fact, evidence points in the direction that a coalition with the PSC is more likely and more supported by CiU-voters. However, PP only comes 4th of the six parties that will sit in the Generalitat for the coming four years. Another prove that centrist-moderate and leftist parties really don’t know how to deal with popular right-wing parties?

As usual, a poll in my Spanish Politics class confirmed that students generally vote differently from the masses. First came ERC, closely followed CiU and then PSC. As opposed to the actual order CiU, ERC, PSC. But even more strangely, it turns out a good few of the Catalans I spoke to didn’t even vote at all. Unsurprisingly, voting participation was at a historical low of only 56.77% yesterday, a low only surpassed once before, in 1992. Out of such weak material, an independent Catalan state is not likely to materialise in the foreseeable future.

: 02 Nov 2006 13:31 |  Tags: 2006 Defining Catalans English Politics Of Our Time |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem