Monday, November 26, 2012

Oriol's opening...


The election results from Catalonia - called 2 years early - make interesting reading; they do signal that probably nothing will get done, as with all rainbow coalitions (not yet formed but necessary). There were slight changes in the political make-up of the autonomous Catalan Parliament (see image left; click to enlarge. To see the votes and seats click HERE) but by far the biggest winner was Oriol Junqueras of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia) who [Ows edit: text from here on was edited at 1pm to make it clearer] is leader of what became the second biggest party, they are staunchly pro Catalonian Independence but against the austerity measures that have been introduced by the ruling Convergència i Unió party (Convergence and Union) who were also the biggest loser (despite still winning!); Artur Mas, the leader of CiU had called the early election: "El 'plan Mas' fracasa" says El Periodico (images also from there); the DT headline says it best: "Spain's Catalan separatists win election but punish Mas". Another point to note not really reported as far as I have seen: those clearly nationalist parties (CiU, ERC and CUP) lost seats compared to the combined total of the 2010 elections when they had 76; back then there was no CUP but included SI (Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència). Another big loser was the PSC (Socialists' Party of Catalonia) although they are against Independence so we can safely presume they lost a big chunk to ERC and to Joan Herrera's ICV-EUiA (Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds - Esquerra Unida i Alternativa, a greeny lefty mini coalition mouthful: Initiative for Catalonia Greens - United and Alternative Left!) also anti-austerity and who also did well. However, the PPC (right-wing popular Party) and the Ciutadans – Partit de la Ciutadania (Party of the Citizenry), both against independence, grew their number of seats and their percentage of votes. Make of all that what you will!

2 comments:

Paul said...

Good post, fascinating stuff. My conclusion is that Spain is the new Italy, a place where you can win and yet lose, lose and yet win - wonderful.

This should give a lot of thought to those advocating separatism or nationalism across Europe although I tend to think that Spain is unique in this respect because the ancient states and boundaries are so fixed in the Spanish conscience in a way that you don't really see outside of Belgium or the former Yugolsavia.

Span Ows said...

Thanks Paul. I think any Catalan with half a brain knows Independence is not a good idea and will set the region back; they have even had to wind their necks in a bit about force-feeding the language etc to all and sundry, scaring off loads of trade (even though trade has been strong).