Saturday 28 October 2017

Madrid will try and crush Catalonia with rigged election.

The Guardian reports that
 
The Spanish government has taken control of Catalonia, dissolved its parliament and announced new elections after secessionist   Catalan MPs voted to establish an independent republic, pushing the country’s worst political crisis in 40 years to new and dangerous heights.
Speaking on Friday evening, the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said his cabinet had fired the regional president, Carles Puigdemont, and ordered regional elections to be held on 21 December.

I can't help thinking  that secessionist is being used by the UK media in a negative way after all Ukip and Leave voters are not  referred to  as secessionist.

The actions came hours after Spain’s national unity suffered a decisive blow when Catalan MPs in the 135-seat regional parliament voted for independence by a margin of 70 votes to 10.

Let's be clear that is a majority which came after a Catalan General Election fought on just that issue.

Dozens of opposition MPs may have3 boycotted the secret ballot, marching out of the chamber in Barcelona before it took place and leaving Spanish and Catalan flags on their empty seats in protest but that had no impact on on the result.

Will the Independence  Parties  take part in a Election controlled from Madrid, how fair is it going to be


Stance on independence and current seats in the European Parliament.

Source: historiaelectoral.com
Together for Yes (JxSí) Process towards independence 62 seats
Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE) Spanish unionism, federalism 16 seats
People's Party (PP) Spanish unionism, status quo  11 seats
Catalonia Yes We Can (CatSíqueesPot) Constitutional reformism, self-determination 11 seats
Democratic Union of Catalonia (unio.cat) Catalan nationalism 0 Seats
Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (C's) Spanish unionism, status quo 25 Seats
Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) Process towards independence 10 Seats



 Will as it has done in the past in  Euskadi the Basque country ban any political partes from taking part?

The excuse in Euskadi was that  parties like Sortu  the first political party belonging to the Basque nationalist "abertzale left" that openly rejects any kind of political violence was stil linked to the militant group ETA.


The jailing of Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the heads of grassroots organizations Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural, speaks volumes how many of the current Parliament  will be banned from  standing ( if they choose) to because they are under"sedition" investigation"?

 
How long will Europe   stand by and see the democratic will of Catalonia's people crushed by a Central government that conduct elections under a dubious mandate and even more dubious conditions.

 The consequences  of Europe turning its back on Catalan Democracy could well be those in the UK dire for Scotland and Wales and  there will be UK Unionists  pn the Left and Right who would seek to emulate Madrid.

So far the only support for Catalonia in the UK parliament has come from Plaid Cymru (Which has recongnised  the Catalan Republic and the SNP. Wwill the Unionist  MPs from the  Conservatives , Labour and Liberal Democrats follow  the line of their Madrid counterparts even when it becomes clear that they are conducting a rigged election ?





 

2 comments:

Leigh Richards said...

To her enormous credit leanne wood is the only political leader in the UK to issue a statement recognising the declaration of the catalonian republic. Even the SNP have yet to officially recognise the newly created republic - which is a shame because as the government of scotland the SNP has the opportunity to make scotland the first country in the world to officially recognise catalonia's declaration of independence. Hopefully they will do just that in the coming days. Catalonia needs all the international solidarity it can get right now else - as you predict glyn - the catalonian republic will be strangled at birth by Rajoy's right wing government in madrid.

But the silence coming from many on the 'progressive' side of uk politics is deafening - not a murmur of support for catalonia from jezza and the labour party and nothing from the major trade unions.

Anonymous said...

The Labour Party and trade union movement in Britain are an absolute disgrace. Their sham internationalism, lack of solidarity and failure to condemn the right wing backlash against the democratically elected Catalan government speaks volumes as to their sad decline.

All we have from the likes of Rhondda MP, Chris Bryant and other Labour Party members is the pathetic mantra that the legality of the referendum was questionable.

How many new states have we seen grasp the opportunity and declare themselves independent during the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, without worrying about the legality of their actions. These were quickly recognised by the UK and EU.

The Labour Party and their friends in the trade union movement have let their ultra British Unionism cloud the true spirit of international solidarity that saw so many young men go to Spain to fight against Franco and his fascist.

Shame on these Rajoy apologists.