Published originally in Spanish. Laura Freixas. La Vanguardia. Our president calls for a referendum that lacks a voter registry, an electoral commission, civil servants or voting places. Isn’t that worth laughing? The government is presided by a gentleman who didn’t run for the position, and whose star project is one that wasn’t in the electoral […]
Categoría: Voices From Spain
La UE debe intervenir
Publicado originalmente en alemán. Ulrich Ladurner. Zeit Online. Los catalanes quieren la independencia de España e intentan arrastrar a la UE a su bando. En esencia: la situación requiere de Bruselas, pero como mediadora. Es hora de que la Unión Europea encare el conflicto entre el Gobierno español y los separatistas catalanes. Es sumamente importante. […]
Constitutional Democracy and the secession referendum in Catalonia (III, IV)
Published originally in Spanish. Manuel Toscano. JotDown. Constitutional Democracy and the secession referendum in Catalonia (II) III The above discussion refers roughly to what in the literature are known as ascriptive and plebiscitarian theories of secession. There is also a third way of justifying secession, according to which it could be morally justified as the […]
Tarda’s youth
Published originally in Spanish. Ricardo Dudda. El País. On September 22, Esquerra Republicana MP Joan Tardà gave a speech to students of the University of Barcelona. He said: «We have the commitment to give birth to the [Catalan] Republic, but it is you who will lead it. And if you do not, you will commit […]
Seven viewpoints on 1-O
Published originally in Spanish. Politikon. Considering the exceptional moment we are in, seven editors of Politikon pour their different viewpoints regarding the vote on October 1st, what has happened up to now and what is yet to come. Elena Costas Pérez. Four days before the referendum in Catalonia any diagnostic is bound to be tragic. […]
Liars and bullies (don’t vote, citizens!)
Published originally in Spanish. Carlos Jiménez Villarejo. Crónica Global. ‘Nobody is worth more than anybody else’ (Antonio Machado) The events of 20 September have made it all clearer. The Civil Guard, as a state law-enforcement agency under orders from Barcelona Investigative Court no. 13, and as part of its judicial commission, searches several state institutions […]
Long Live a Free and Sovereign Pozuelo!
Published originally in Spanish. Luis Garicano. El Diario. I live in Pozuelo, a municipality in the outskirts of Madrid, where I commute daily. Pozuelo is the richest city in Spain, with an average household income of €73,000. Pozuelo is full of good private schools. Many of my neighbors use neither the public school system nor […]
Foreign in my own country
Published originally in Spanish. Roger Senserrich. Politikon. I think I have said this before, but I always felt as belonging, sentimentally at least, to four countries: Venezuela, England, United States and Catalonia. I was born in Venezuela; I lived there until I was 6. I never went again. First, because I was too young, later […]
The expressive vote for independence
Published originally in Spanish. Ricardo Dudda. Letras Libres. For many supporters of Catalan independence, the illegal referendum on October 1 is an act of democracy because it consists in putting a ballot into a ballot box. One of the most frequent errors of the Catalan independence movement is equating voting with democracy. The October 1 […]
Le vote expressif pour l’indépendance
Publié à l’origine en espagnol. Ricardo Dudda. Letras Libres. Pour de nombreux indépendantistes catalans, le référendum illégal du 1er octobre est un acte démocratique car il consiste à introduire un bulletin dans une urne. L’une des erreurs les plus fréquentes de l’indépendantisme catalan est d’assimiler le vote à la démocratie. Le vote du 1er octobre […]