Spain: Where next for Catalonia after its unofficial referendum? | The Conversation

Catalans have voted for independence in a referendum that holds no official sway but has enormous significance. Now Catalonia needs to decide where to turn next. The referendum, held on November 9, was promoted by a coalition of forces, backed by the Catalan government, that argue that Catalonia has the “right to decide” whether it should be independent. About 2.2 million people voted in what has been called a symbolic referendum. A significant 80.7% backed total independence. Between 10% and 11% wished Catalonia to federate with Spain and 5% supported the status quo. This was understandably seen as a success by the Catalan government and has strengthened the standing of its president, Artur Mas.

Spain: Catalans Back Independence in Symbolic Vote | Wall Street Journal

More than two million Catalans defied a Spanish court and voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence Sunday in a symbolic exercise that vividly brought home both the resolve of Catalan nationalists and the obstacles they face. The vote, overseen largely by volunteers and boycotted by most independence opponents, wasn’t binding and had little international credibility. But Catalans pointed to the high turnout, despite legal and logistical hurdles, to bolster their case to be permitted to hold a formal, binding referendum on separating their wealthy region from Spain. “We’ve earned the right,” said Catalan leader Artur Mas, after casting his ballot. Catalonia’s government estimated that 2.25 million people had participated. The region has about 6 million eligible voters. The ballot asked two questions—whether Catalonia should be a state and whether that state should be independent. With 88% of polling stations reporting returns, the government said that 80.7% answered yes to both questions, and another 10.1% answered yes to the first and no to the second. Some 4.5% voted no to both questions, the government said, and the rest of the ballots were blank. There was no sign, though, that the outcome would prompt Spain’s central government in Madrid to waver from its steadfast opposition to such a referendum.

Spain: Catalan Leader Plans Revised Independence Vote in November | Wall Street Journal

The leader of the wealthy Catalonia region Tuesday said that he would move forward with a controversial plan to hold a vote on independence in November, but under a revised process that both supporters and opponents say would lend decidedly less legitimacy to the outcome. Catalan leader Artur Mas said he was abandoning his original plan for a nonbinding referendum set for Nov. 9, because he saw no hope of persuading Spain’s constitutional court to lift an injunction barring the vote. In remarks Tuesday in Barcelona, Mr. Mas acknowledged the new voting plan, with volunteer election officials and no voter-roll, wouldn’t be “definitive” and was vague about many of the operational details. The revised plan “is more an act of citizen participation, like a petition drive, rather than a referendum or an election,” said Lluís Orriols, a political scientist at Carlos III University in Madrid.

Spain: Higher court suspends Catalonia vote | Al Jazeera

Spain’s Constitutional Court has temporarily halted an independence referendum called by the rich northeastern region of Catalonia, a decision which the region’s leaders vowed to ignore despite warnings by the central government. The court’s unanimous decision to hear the government’s case automatically suspended the November 9 non-binding referendum from going forward until the court hears arguments and makes a decision, a process that could take months or years, a court spokeswoman said. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of court rules preventing her from being named. The court acted hours after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the referendum decree represents “a grave attack on the rights of all Spaniards.”

Spain: Catalonia votes to ask Spain for secession ballot | Associated Press

A European season of separatist fervor kicked off Thursday with Catalan lawmakers voting in favor of asking for the right to hold a referendum on independence from Spain. The European Union was watching closely as Belgium’s Dutch speakers gear up to push for greater autonomy in May elections, and Scotland prepares to hold its own referendum on breaking away from Britain in the fall. The vote was a milestone in years of mass protests by Catalans, who are fiercely proud of their distinct culture and language, demanding the right to decide whether they want to secede. As lawmakers debated at the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Thursday before the vote, about 150 Catalans outside waved independence flags. A smaller group unfurled Spanish flags before the debate began, yelling “Catalonia is Spain!” But the vote was also largely symbolic.

Spain: Catalonia holds key vote in Spain secession drive | Associated Press

A European season of separatist fervor kicks off Thursday with Catalan lawmakers voting on whether to seek the right to hold a referendum on independence from Spain. The EU will be watching closely as Belgium’s Dutch speakers gear up to push for greater autonomy in May elections, and Scotland prepares to hold its own referendum on breaking away from Britain in the fall. Thursday’s vote is a milestone in years of mass protests by Catalans, who are fiercely proud of their distinct culture and language, demanding the right to decide whether they want to secede. But it is also largely a symbolic one.

Spain: Catalans vote in election | Voice of Russia

Catalans have begun voting in elections that could lead to the north-eastern region breaking away from Spain, after the region’s leader Artur Mas made the running in the campaign by vowing to hold a referendum on independence for rich but indebted Catalonia. Catalonians on Sunday vote in local elections likely to install a government committed to pushing through a referendum on independence, that Madrid has said would be illegal under the Spanish constitution.

Spain: Catalan elections point to growing polarisation in independence debate | guardian.co.uk

Artur Mas, the Catalan president, was both clear winner and biggest loser in regional elections on Sunday, leaving his march towards statehood up in the air and ushering in years of messy strife with Madrid. “The next independent country within Europe,” as separatist posters across this stateless nation had billed Catalonia, will have to wait, and the region’s 7.5 million inhabitants risk being thrown into a bitter, confrontational internal debate. Mas’s Convergence and Union (CiU) nationalist coalition lost a fifth of its deputies in the 135-seat regional parliament, but its 50 deputies are still twice as many as any other party has. No one else can form a government and Mas can, in theory, choose between three partners to prop up the CiU.

Spain: Cubans who became Spanish citizens recently are voting in Spain’s elections Sunday | bellinghamherald.com

Some Cubans will vote in their first democratic elections this Sunday. But they won’t be electing anyone in their own country. Instead, they will vote in Spain’s parliamentary elections because they are among the more than 25,000 Cubans who took advantage of a 2006 Spanish law that grants citizenship to the foreign-born grandchildren of Spanish emigrants.

More than 12,000 Spanish citizens living in Cuba requested mail-in ballots for Sunday’s parliamentary election, according to Spanish news media reports. Among them are expected to be some who were born Cuban and recently became Spaniards.

Spain: People’s party sweeps to crushing victory over Socialists | The Guardian

The conservative People’s party (PP) of Mariano Rajoy has swept to a landslide victory in Spain’s general election, inheriting sky-high unemployment and one of the shakiest economies in Europe. Rajoy’s PP gained an absolute parliamentary majority with a crushing 16 percentage point win over the Socialists of outgoing prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

The Socialists lost a third of their seats as voters dumped a government that presided over a dramatic economic slump which has left 23% of Spaniards out of work. With the PP winning 186 of the 350 seats in parliament, 56-year-old Rajoy was given a free hand to carry out sweeping reforms and impose further austerity in an attempt to turn the country around.

Morocco: Partido Popular Opposes Granting vote to Moroccans | Gibraltar Chronicle

Partido Popular wants to prevent Moroccan migrants resident in Ceuta and Melilla from voting in local elections in 2015. The party said the right to vote could not be granted to the citizens of a country that has a territorial claim over the two Spanish enclaves, both of which are governed by the PP.

Party officials were speaking after Morocco approved a new Constitution on July 1 that allows foreign residents to vote in local elections. Four days later, Spain’s Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jiménez, said Spain would sign agreements to ensure that right was reciprocated.

Spain: Three hackers suspected of belonging to international cyber attack group Anonymous arrested | The Washington Post

Spanish police have arrested three suspected computer hackers who allegedly belonged to a loose-knit international activist group that attacked corporate and government websites around the world, authorities said Friday.

National Police identified the three as leaders of the Spanish section of a group that calls itself “Anonymous.” All three are Spaniards aged 30 to 32, said Manuel Vazquez, chief of the police’s high-tech crime unit.

A computer server in one of their homes was used to take part in cyber attacks on targets including two major Spanish banks, the Italian energy company Enel and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand, Vazquez said.

Spain: Spain’s election commission says weekend protests illegal | AFP

Spain’s electoral commission declared late Thursday that protests set for this weekend by thousands of people angry over the economic crisis are illegal.

The Central Electoral Commission (JEC) said protests planned for Saturday and for Sunday, the day when regional and municipal polls are scheduled, “go beyond the constitutionally guaranteed right to demonstrate.”