Catalan Election Results

After two weeks of campaigning, last Sunday the Catalans went to vote.  The result wasn’t what anyone expected it would be, and now the Socialists are explaining how their loss of seats is really a win because they didn’t lose as many seats as the predictions said they would, or how CIU, going from 62 to 50 seats, really lost.  They did lose seats, but by coming in first and ending up with twice as many seats as the next largest contingent, they didn’t exactly lose the election.

The results came out thus:

Pro-referendum
CIU, 50 seats
ERC, 21 seats
CUP, 3 seats
ICV, 13 seats

Not clear on their position:

PSC, 20 seats

Against referendum:

PP, 19 seats
C’s, 9 seats

Adding it up, you get 87 of 135 seats in favor of a referendum.  That’s 64% of the parliament and an absolute majority.  If the parties were to actually vote for or against independence, you would have CIU, ERC, and CUP voting for, ICV has not taken a position, and the last three, PSC, PP, and C’s would vote no (although there could be several renegade representatives from PSC who would also vote yes).  In any case, taking the party line 74 of 135 would vote yes, making it 54%, enough for a declaration of independence by parliament.

The reporters tell us what happened, what the results are.  It’s the job of the pundits to tell us why.  Some of them are more interesting to listen to and make more sense than others, but, for the most part, they don’t seem to really know.  It’s a lot easier to count numbers than to know and understand people’s motives.

Speaking of numbers, even as late as yesterday, the Vice President of Spain said to the press that because CIU lost 12 seats in the Catalan Parliament, clearly, the move for a referendum and independence lost.  Surely it isn’t possible that the Vice President of Spain doesn’t know that ERC, a political party that has been around since before she was even born, is first a foremost a Catalan nationalist party in favor of independence.  So, assuming that someone in such a high political position of power does, in fact, know, that leaves one with the disturbing thought that she is simply lying to the Spanish public, in the hope that someone out there believes her.  The other disturbing thought, is that she’s probably right in her hope.  Or possibly, that because of government cutbacks, she doesn’t have, as I do, a calculator to add up the numbers and figure out the percentages.  In fact, some the Madrid newspapers suffer from the same handicap as the Vice President.  If you lived in Spain you wouldn't know that pro-referendum and what’s more, pro-independence parties won the election unless you read Catalan newspapers, foreign newspapers, or read the Spanish papers but were able to add and divide.

I wouldn’t normally vote for CIU, but this time I hoped Artur Mas would win.  I believe he is totally committed to holding the referendum and gaining independence.  I also found him to be the most practical and the most diplomatic, and for this endeavor, both are necessary.

Since the election I’ve been worried about whether Mas (CIU, and President of the Generalitat) and Junqueras (ERC and head of the opposition) will be able to work together.  If they don’t, independence won’t happen.  CIU is right wing and ERC is left.  As things progress, it begins to look like both are willing to make some compromises.  If they do, this will be the best possible scenario.  Because with the two sides, left and right, working together, more people will be brought into the independence movement and it will strengthen the movement’s image internationally.  If the right and the left both back independence, that shows that a broad segment of the Catalan population supports it.  So if they work together there should be a referendum to vote on in 2013.  I do believe I am witnessing the birth of a nation.   

Photos courtesy of Trini Gonzalez

 

Spanish Nightmares

Catalunya is having its parliamentary elections this Sunday, the beginning of what will probably be the road to independence. The Government in Madrid is doing everything it can to derail these elections. So many lies have been told that it’s hard to remember them all.  If I had known how this was going to play out, I would have kept notes.  But one very notable lie was published last Friday by the newspaper El Mundo.  This is a supposed draft of a police report that accused the incumbent President Artur Mas, a supporter of independence who is running for reelection, of having illegal bank accounts in Switzerland.

It turns out that this draft report has never been shown to anyone and no one knows who wrote it. In Spain, police can investigate on a tip or a lead, but if it looks like there is cause to open an investigation, they must bring their evidence and ideas to a judge to authorize an investigation (if you read foreign crime novels, you’ll find the same process in Simenon’s Inspector Maigret books and Camalleri’s Inspector Montalbano).  The judge is also the one who authorizes any information being given to the media.  This alleged report was never approved, much less seen by any judge.  So if there really is such a draft report, it was illegally leaked from the police to the media.

When asked by President Mas to clarify, the Minister of the Interior said that he could find no evidence of this report.

When asked by President Mas to investigate and/or clarify, Cristobal Montoro, the Minister of Hisenda (Internal Revenue Service) said that it not for him to clarify. It was up to Artur Mas to explain about these illegal accounts.

Political campaigns in Spain run for only two weeks (and amazingly, people say they get tired of the campaigning before it’s over!) and this stink bomb was dropped right in the middle of that period.  Artur Mas has denied having any bank accounts in Switzerland, in spite of the fact that he has not been officially accused of anything.  Even so, day after day, the PP party says he must make a statement concerning those accounts.  It seems that in Spain, if you are anonymously accused, it is up to you to prove you are innocent.  This reminds me of Spain during the Inquisition, and yet it’s been 500 years.

This is what democracy is like in Spain. Referendums that allow people to vote on issues important to them are forbidden, and the accused has to explain himself, even if there is no evidence of a legal or official accusation. Spanish-style democracy is the stuff of nightmares.

This week another story hit the news, this one even stranger, although not quite the threat to democracy as the last.  Antonio Tejero is a former Colonel of the Guardia Civil. He’s a former colonel, because he was expelled from that paramilitary unit after his participation in the failed attempt to overthrow the new democratic government in Spain on 23 February 1981, a few years after Franco’s death. 

Two days ago, this same former colonel filed an accusation with the Prosecutor General of Spain against Artur Mas (who he referred to as Arturo Mas, ignoring the President’s actual name – I guess he doesn’t like Catalan names), accusing him of provocation, conspiracy, and proposing sedition.  I was thinking that perhaps Mr. Anthony Tejero might want to supply comedy shows like Saturday Night Live (is that still on the air?) with material for their skits.

The Catalan parliamentary elections will be held this Sunday.  I can only imagine that if Catalans get fed up with campaigns after less than two weeks, they also get fed up with the antics of the Spanish government.  We’ll see.