More than 2/3 of Catalan voters went to the polls until late this afternoon to vote in the upcoming regional elections, an electoral contest that is expected to determine the future of the separatist movement in the Spanish region.
The local government announced that the turnout was 68,32% at 18.00 local time (19.00 Greek time), higher by 5% and more compared to the turnout in the elections of September 2015, where it was recorded at the same time percentage 63,12%.
Unlike 2015, today is a working day in Catalonia so many Catalans may go to the polls in the last two hours before the polls close at 21.00 Greek time.
The final participation rate is expected to reach almost 75%.
First exit poll
The parties in favor of Catalonia's autonomy appear to be securing an absolute majority in the regional elections held today, according to an exit poll published by the newspaper La Vanguardia, as soon as the polls close in Catalonia.
According to the exit poll, the CIUDADANOS, which supports unity with Spain and the pro-independence party, the ESQUERRA REPUBLICANA DE CATALUNYA, appear to have almost the same number of seats in the new parliament, with the CIUDADANOS having a small lead (34-37 and 34). -36 respectively).
However, pro-autonomy parties are expected to secure 67-71 seats out of a total of 135 seats in parliament, according to the exit poll.
A deeply divided region at the polls (Source of RES)
More than 5,5 million Catalan voters are being called on to elect their new parliament today, in an electoral contest imposed by Spain's central government following the unilateral referendum on independence on October 1. of this region by the state body of the Iberian country.
Today is nothing like the electrified atmosphere that prevailed in October and "society seems to come to the polls numb, or at least restrained," as Enrique Gallien, a student at Barcelona Airport, points out to APE. Of course there are flags here and there (the Catalan esteladas, and the national flag of the others), of course there is division, which is expressed at all levels, but the final split in Catalan society is now expressed more silently. With the police flooding the streets but also the public buildings and discreetly monitoring everything, the political leaders of the wing that wants independence in prison, or in the exile of Brussels, the citizens choose to express themselves more carefully. Fanatically, but without the previous extremes - especially the young, who appear in the vast majority to support independence.
The division in Catalan society is even older. The older ones, who have either experienced, or have managed to get to know Franco's dictatorship in their youth, like the younger ones, like Gallien, want to see Catalonia a free state. Citizens in the 30-50 age group, who have lived the prosperity of the European course, or are the offspring of internal migrants from other parts of Spain, who have sought a better life and work in Catalonia, are more indifferent to independence. or completely opposed to it.
"Half of the Catalan government is in prison, or in exile. The very announcement of elections, which is the exclusive prerogative of the President of Catalonia, was made by the Spanish Prime Minister, an abnormal act in violation of any law. Terrorism was imposed on politicians for not expressing their ideas, the media was censored and intimidated, and even the colors themselves, such as yellow, were banned. "It may seem strange, but it was forbidden for any member of the polling stations in the polling station to wear yellow clothes, or to refer to a symbol," said Jaume Forres Liasat, a member of the central committee of the historically separatist party Esquerra Republicana. which according to opinion polls is expected to occupy the first place, he emphasizes.
"The fact that the leaders and first on the respective ballots of the pro-independence parties (ERC and PDeCat) are in prison, or in exile, significantly limits their ability to participate in the election process, to communicate, or to speak out in the campaign - especially for the leader of Esquerra Oriol Junkeras, who can communicate with the outside world only twice a week and only in writing ", he emphasizes in APE.
Nevertheless, then and now, Catalan voters - whether they feel separate from their Spanish citizenship or not - are called upon to decide through a unilaterally decided process. Because both the Totin referendum, and today's elections, were decided in both cases in the light of an interpretation beyond the Constitutional principle, which intensified the difference between the power of legality and the supremacy of legitimacy. In both cases, the 'hardliners' and their totalitarianism clashed, with the Catalan government at the local level and the Spanish central government at the national level. Both in the case of the referendum and in the current context of Madrid surveillance and forced elections, under the pressure of a peculiar 'state of exception' and economic suffocation, moderate voices .
"Some attribute the poor results foretold for the Catalunya en Com faction to the political climate and polarization that has developed around the Procs. In fact, they remind us at times of the experience of Gaspar Liamathares, of the Izquierda Unida (United Left) who was throwing the ballot box into the "bipartisan tsunami" for its sad election results ", emphasizes Antonio Gometh Villar, Professor of Politics and executive of En Com Podem. "The problem lies in the fact that the party wants to occupy a central position that will be governed by a positive perception of its policy and logic, neither Article 155 (for the restriction of the freedoms of a region), nor independence. "A position that makes the CeC keep equal distances from the two extreme reference poles in Catalonia."
In the light of this peculiar state of exception, “the election campaign was more intense than any other in the past. "It did not in any way deviate from the violence (although nationalist Spanish far-right groups that tried to terrorize intruded on the election rallies," said Forres Liossat.
As Steven Forti, an Italian researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History of the New University of Lisbon and a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who lives and teaches in the Catalan capital, points out to APE, "it is mainly a combination of with what will happen from December 22 onwards in the area. There is a great deal of anticipation regarding the results of these elections, which can be described as "exceptional" (to make a pun and with the state of exception in the FS region) ".
In yesterday's 'dead' day before the election, when parties were banned from holding rallies and their political leaders making statements, the only poll published was that of the Periodic de Andorra, which brought the Esquera Republicana de Ctalunya and the Ciutadans to give the battle for supremacy and the emergence of the dominant forces in the two camps, catalyzing the historic bipolarity of the PDeCat Conservatives, heirs of Convergencia i Unio ', who ruled the region for over 25 years in the post-Franco era and the PSC Socialists. which only after the referendum have begun to recover and possibly emerge as a regulatory force until their leader, Michel Isetta, hopes that in a post-election coalition party he can become the next president of Catalonia. However, all the results of the polls show that none of the parties manages to ensure the autonomy of the 68 seats required.
"Despite the state of repression, the majority of polls show that the ERC will be the political force with the most votes in 38 years," despite the fact that for the first time in 'democratic' Europe, the leader of a political force that has won the election will be in jail for his ideology. It seems unimaginable, but from tomorrow, December 22, it may be true ", stresses Fores Liasat, who expects that the three parties that support the Procs (process) of independence (ERC, PDeCAT and the anti-capitalists of the CUP) will" manage to ensure the absolute majority in Parliament ", adds the ERC executive.
"Polls fail to provide clear answers to possible post-election scenarios. The base of the defenders of independence continues its mobilizations, although there is a risk that many people will stay at home and not vote. There are many who express their disappointment after the catastrophic failure of the unilateral declaration of independence. But what will happen remains to be seen in a few hours "emphasizes Forti, who of course sees things from a distance.
The electoral rise of Ciudadanos, a neoliberal political party with an extreme nationalist Hispanic ideology, which absorbs the votes of the old People's Party (PP), which, although ruling Spain in Catalonia, has no electoral weight and has no electoral weight, is remarkable. "seats from all the parties participating in the Parliament", stresses Forres Liasat.
Accordingly, Forty notes the great mobilization of forces that do not want independence, "especially in the greater Barcelona area, where mainly working families from all over Spain live there who moved there in the decades between 50-70 in search of work. It will also be very interesting to see how much the turnout in the elections will fluctuate, which may exceed 80% ".
"It is clear that the context of the elections is very difficult, but I believe that we are looking at the tree and not at the forest. "What differentiates, in my opinion, Catalunya en Com'-Podem from Bcom in the municipal elections and En Comu Podem in the regional elections, is the loss of energy of the popular strata that had allowed the previous victorious results of the party", stresses the Antonio Gomez Villar, on the other hand, regarding the possibility of his party gaining meager results.
What is certain, as Forty points out, is that “Catalan society is extremely divided, as it has never been before, and this is evident within families themselves, among friends, in the workplace. Proc's main impact of independence is the end of consensus in Catalonia. "The obvious danger that arises is the possibility of a deep rift in society: something that will take many years to bridge."