The polls have just closed here in Catalonia and it looks very likely that two million of the electorate of 5.4 million will have voted in the civil referendum.
This is despite the fact that:
a) only one third of the normal number of polling stations were open
b) the Constitutional Court had declared the vote, the act of voting, and the act of supporting a vote illegal
c) Head teachers at every school in Catalonia (many schools are used as polling stations in elections) had received this letter from the Governor of Catalonia telling them that it was illegal to open the school as a polling station.
(The letter, from the wonderfully named Maria Llanos de Luna (Mary "Planes of the Moon") is a masterpiece in legalistic obscurantism. It is also almost unreadable - the first sentence, for example, runs to 107 words.)
Catalans everywhere have been voting - there were queues at the London office of the Generalitat, in Fleet Street.
Today's poll is determined self-determination. Every Catalan who voted was breaking the law - two million people defied the courts and voted. This is democracy in the face of a Madrid government that tried to ban it. At last night's European Free Alliance meeting in Barcelona Daniel Turp of the Parti Québécois focused on the right of people to self determination as a measure of democracy.
He was right - the Catalans have shown what democracy (δημοκρατία / dēmokratía) really is - rule of the people.
This is despite the fact that:
a) only one third of the normal number of polling stations were open
b) the Constitutional Court had declared the vote, the act of voting, and the act of supporting a vote illegal
c) Head teachers at every school in Catalonia (many schools are used as polling stations in elections) had received this letter from the Governor of Catalonia telling them that it was illegal to open the school as a polling station.
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| Message from the Moon |
(The letter, from the wonderfully named Maria Llanos de Luna (Mary "Planes of the Moon") is a masterpiece in legalistic obscurantism. It is also almost unreadable - the first sentence, for example, runs to 107 words.)
Catalans everywhere have been voting - there were queues at the London office of the Generalitat, in Fleet Street.
Today's poll is determined self-determination. Every Catalan who voted was breaking the law - two million people defied the courts and voted. This is democracy in the face of a Madrid government that tried to ban it. At last night's European Free Alliance meeting in Barcelona Daniel Turp of the Parti Québécois focused on the right of people to self determination as a measure of democracy.
He was right - the Catalans have shown what democracy (δημοκρατία / dēmokratía) really is - rule of the people.
Thank you for your post. Cool to read from a Scotish in Catalunya for a Catalan in England...
ReplyDeleteHugs and Visca Catalunya Lliure, Sí i Sí!