BARCELONA: Catalans will go to the polls on Thursday to elect a regional Parliament in a bitterly contested vote that has become an unofficial ballot on whether the semi-autonomous region will pursue independence or realign itself with Madrid.
The stakes could scarcely be higher: Should the separatists prevail it could ultimately end Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s tenure, while an anti-secessionist victory could lead to the dismantling of Catalonia’s “independista” apparatus including Catalan-language state media.
Opinion polls indicate the vote is too close to call, with separatist parties forecast to win 65-69 seats; 68 are required for a majority.
The election follows Catalonia’s Oct. 1 independence referendum that overwhelmingly endorsed creating a Catalan republic but which Madrid denounced as illegal amid state violence that injured hundreds of voters.
Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont duly declared independence, leading Rajoy to suspend Catalonia’s semi-autonomy, sack the regional government and call new elections for Dec. 21.
Many separatist leaders stand accused of sedition and are in prison, exile or on bail.
The political turmoil has led more than 2,000 Catalan companies which, combined, account for around half of the region’s GDP, to move their headquarters elsewhere, according to pro-unionist organization Societat Civil Catalana.
Thursday’s vote, like the previous 2015 elections, has split on pro-independence and unionist lines, with parties on the left and right in both camps. These blocs are reasonably stable, so big swings in either direction seem improbable.
On the pro-independence side stand Junts per Catalunya, the new banner for Puigdemont’s ailing PDeCAT party, which has recruited civic leaders to broaden its appeal.
“Our electoral approach is to try to re-confirm the sovereigntist majority of the past two years in Parliament,” said Jordi Xucla, a Junts per Catalunya spokesman. “If this happens, we can go forward with the same strategy.”
Also pushing independence is the leftist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), which was part of a coalition with PDeCAT in 2015 and whose leader, Oriol Junqueras, remains in prison. Its slogan is “Democracy always wins.”
“It’s a not a clean electoral process,” said ERC spokesman Ernest Maragall. “We’re fighting this election with one arm tied behind our backs. We will try to win to follow the path to a real and full republic.”
Spain ranks second-lowest in Western Europe for judicial independence and separatist politicians say voting for them can help to end the incarceration of what they say are political prisoners, a call that could garner support from voters unsure about independence but appalled by Madrid’s approach to Catalonia’s constitutional convulsions.
“It’s perhaps the only way separatists can counter the disappointment that followed the declaration of independence, which was totally anti-climactic,” Antonio Barroso, Teneo Intelligence managing director. “By taking this approach they hope to re-mobilize their support and maximize turnout.”
That seemed evident at a November 11 demonstration attended by Arab News which drew 750,000 protesters and where shouts of “freedom” and “Puigdemont is our president” were common cries. Yet the atmosphere was reserved, a famous Catalan trait; Catalonia, which accounts for a fifth of Spain’s economy, is a peaceful, plentiful region – this is not Bucharest in 1989.
“I’m here because Spain is unjust. I give my support to all the prisoners. Today is more for democracy than independence,” said Pau, 23, a media studies student wearing the independence flag, the Estelada, as a cape.
Cuidadanos is the most significant party opposed to independence. Founded in Catalonia, it was originally center-left, but drifted to the right as it became a national movement. Rajoy’s right-wing PP, created by former ministers of Spain’s long-ruling dictator Francisco Franco, is projected to attract only 5.4 percent of votes. Catalonia’s political affiliations reflect its demographics. Official statistics indicate that 50 percent of residents describe themselves as Catalans living in Catalonia and overwhelmingly support independence.
The remainder have a closer affiliation to Spain – during the 20th century, migrant workers arrived from poorer regions to work in Catalonia’s industrial sector and their descendants are Catalans, but they remain culturally, ethnically and linguistically different.
“Ethnic Catalans come mostly from rural areas, but they’re also the bourgeois - these people are richer, better connected, and more educated,” said Jorge San Miguel Lobeto, a political scientist and Ciudadanos adviser.
Support for independence has surged from just 14 percent in 2006, since when Rajoy has been instrumental in denying Catalonia greater autonomy, which along with Spain’s severe post-2008 recession emboldened the separatist cause.
“Many voters support independence because it appears to be an easier solution: to get a new state as a way of punishing traditional politics,” said Juan Rodriguez Teruel, professor of political sciences at the University of Valencia.
Those sentiments were evident in Girona, the wealthy cathedral city where Puigdemont served as mayor after his exile to Belgium.
“He went to Europe to tell Europe what’s happening here,” said Mireia, a 24-year-old pro-independence social worker born in Girona to Andalusian parents. “Madrid is manipulating the Spanish press, so he had to leave.”
Marc, 31, a cake-maker from La Bisbal D’emporda, a small town nearby, had set up a stall in Plaça de la Independencia.
“To protect our Catalan identity, we need independence. Madrid doesn’t recognize us as Catalans, so we need to go,” said Marc, who believes Madrid’s crackdown strengthened the secessionists’ ranks. “Those who voted for independence in October will vote for independence parties again, and those who didn’t but don’t like to be repressed will do so too.”
Stakes could hardly be higher in Catalonia’s polls
Stakes could hardly be higher in Catalonia’s polls
London court set to rule on Julian Assange extradition
- The 52-year-old Australian is seeking permission to appeal against a ruling allowing him to be sent to face a US trial on espionage charges
The 52-year-old Australian is seeking permission to appeal against a ruling allowing him to be sent to face a US trial on espionage charges, after a long-running court saga.
Two London High Court judges handling Assange’s request adjourned the case in March, asking US government lawyers to give “satisfactory assurances” about free speech protections and that he would not face the death penalty if convicted.
Those submissions are expected to be presented at a hearing on Monday, and the judges could rule immediately afterwards.
If successful, Assange will be able to go back to domestic UK courts.
If he loses, Assange could be swiftly extradited after a five-year legal battle that has pitted the Washington and London governments against free-speech campaigners.
Assange’s only hope would then be to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, which could order a stay on the extradition if it decides there are “exceptional circumstances.”
It would also require London to accept the order. This is uncertain because of a separate dispute with the European court which blocked the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Dozens of Assange supporters gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London early Monday, many wearing T-shirts bearing Assange’s face.
“This man’s life is at stake,” 83-year-old sculptor Jenny West told AFP.
“He represents all other journalists, it’s a pressing humanitarian situation,” she added.
Assange has been detained in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London since April 2019.
He was arrested after spending seven years holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced accusations of sexual assault that were eventually dropped.
US authorities want to put the publisher on trial for divulging US military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange is accused of publishing some 700,000 confidential documents relating to US military and diplomatic activities, starting in 2010.
The United States has accused Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act, which his supporters warn mean he could be sentenced to 175 years in prison.
UK courts approved the extradition request after the United States vowed that Assange would not go to its most extreme prison, “ADX Florence,” nor to subject him to the harsh regime known as “Special Administrative Measures.”
His supporters have criticized the legal proceedings he has faced.
“It is abundantly clear of course that the process in the court in the United Kingdom is corrupt. The case is rigged against Julian,” Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief, told reporters last Wednesday.
Stella Assange said she hoped her husband would be present at Monday’s hearing but added that she did not expect the judges to rule in his favor.
“I don’t expect a rational outcome from the courts, I’m afraid to say,” she said.
Assange’s supporters say his health is fragile and the Council of Europe this week voiced concern about his treatment.
The United States indicted Assange multiple times between 2018 and 2020 but President Joe Biden has faced domestic and international pressure to drop the case filed under his predecessor Donald Trump.
Biden indicated recently that the United States was considering an Australian request to drop the charges.
“President Biden has the chance still to be the president who put an end to this, who acted in the interest of press freedom in journalism,” said Rebecca Vincent, of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Daesh claims attack in Afghanistan that killed 3 Spanish citizens and 3 Afghans
- The Daesh group issued statements on its Aamaq news agency late Sunday
- Seven people were wounded in the attack on Friday in on Bamiyan province, a major tourist area
ISLAMABAD: The Daesh group has claimed responsibility for an attack on foreigners in central Afghanistan last week in which three Spanish citizens and three Afghans were killed.
Seven people were wounded in the attack on Friday in on Bamiyan province, a major tourist area, according to Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the interior minister. He said seven suspects were arrested at the scene.
The Daesh group issued statements on its Aamaq news agency late Sunday that said its fighters attacked a bus carrying tourists and their guides. “The attack was in response to the IS leaders’ directions to target citizens of the European Union wherever they are found,” it said.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry said three Spaniards died and at least one more had been wounded. A Taliban official in Bamiyan, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the four wounded foreigners were from Spain, Norway, Australia and Latvia.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on social media platform X that he was “overwhelmed” by the news.
Qani said that all those who were wounded have been transferred to capital of Kabul for treatment and they are stable condition.
The Daesh group’s affiliate in Afghanistan is a major Taliban rival and its militants have attacked schools, hospitals, mosques and minority Shiite areas throughout the country.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.
The Taliban is seeking to increase the number of tourists coming to the country. In 2021, there were 691 foreign tourists; in 2022, that figure rose to 2,300; and last year, it topped 7,000.
Bamiyan was the site of two massive Buddha statues carved into a cliff between the 4th and 6th century and which were destroyed by the Taliban at Al-Qaeda’s urging in early 2001.
Separately on Monday, a hand grenade exploded in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least one civilian and wounding three, the Kandahar police chief’s office said.
Police were investigating the explosion near the road toward Kandahar airport, the statement said. No group has taken responsibility for the blast.
India begins voting in fifth phase as Mumbai, Gandhi family boroughs head to polls
- World’s largest election began on April 19 and will conclude on June 1
- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Raebareli, Wayanad seats
MUMBAI: India began voting in the fifth phase of its mammoth general elections on Monday, with seats in the financial capital Mumbai and the opposition’s Gandhi family bastions set to be sealed in the last few legs of the seven-phase vote.
The world’s largest election began on April 19 and will conclude on June 1, with votes set to be counted on June 4.
Monday’s phase has the least number of seats being contested, with 89.5 million voters set to choose representatives for 49 seats.
Several high-profile candidates are in the fray on Monday — including defense minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and trade minister Piyush Goyal from Mumbai — cities which have suffered from a dismal voter turnout in the past.
The Election Commission on Sunday specifically called upon residents of those cities “to erase the stigma” of urban apathy.
“At the core of our vision for Mumbai is – better infrastructure and more ‘ease of living,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while campaigning in the city last week, just days after at least 14 people were killed when a massive billboard fell during a rainstorm.
Two boroughs of the Congress party’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in the politically-crucial Uttar Pradesh are also going to polls, with scion Rahul Gandhi contesting the seat of Raebareli, in addition to Wayanad in the south which has already voted. India allows candidates to contest multiple constituencies but represent only one.
Sonia Gandhi, Congress party chief and former lawmaker from Raebareli, made an emotional appeal to voters asking them to vote for her son in a region that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has dominated in the last 10 years.
Smriti Irani, minister for women and child development, is contesting from Amethi. In 2019, she defeated Rahul Gandhi in a seat his family held continuously for the last four decades.
Among other keenly watched electorates in the state is Kaiserganj, where the BJP is fielding a former wrestling federation chief’s son, despite his father being charged with sexually harassing female wrestlers.
Poor voter turnout became a concern for the ruling BJP initially, and analysts believe the low numbers cast doubts on the landslide victory the party and its allies sought.
After an initial poor performance, more people started casting their vote with an average turnout of 66.95 percent in four phases, and 69 percent in the fourth one on May 13.
Modi, widely expected to return as prime minister for a third consecutive term, has been accused by opponents of targeting minority Muslims to please hard-line voters.
Modi has repeatedly accused the Congress party of planning to extend welfare benefits to Muslims at the expense of disadvantaged tribal groups and Hindu castes, a claim the Congress has denied.
In a recent television interview aired after the fourth phase, Modi said it was his resolve to “not do Hindu-Muslim (in politics).”
The opposition INDIA alliance, consisting of Congress and a dozen political parties, got a major boost after fierce Modi critic and Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal was given temporary relief by the court and allowed to campaign in the elections.
Pope Francis calls anti-migrant attitudes at US border ‘madness’
- Record numbers of migrants fleeing poverty and violence have been seeking to enter the US, largely from Central America and Venezuela
- The matter has emerged as a top political issue in the November US election, with Biden and challenger Trum, pushing the topic front and center
WASHINGTON: Pope Francis made a foray into the US election season with a rare television interview Sunday, calling harsh anti-migrant attitudes “madness” and criticizing right-wing US Catholic figures for overly conservative stances against his social teachings.
Speaking in his native Spanish through a translator for more than an hour, Francis told CBS News program “60 Minutes” that the closing by the state of Texas of a Catholic charity offering humanitarian assistance was absurd.
“That is madness. Sheer madness. To close the border and leave them there, that is madness. The migrant has to be received,” the pope said.
“Thereafter you see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe you have to send him back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely,” Francis said.
Record numbers of migrants have been seeking to enter the United States, largely from Central America and Venezuela, as they flee poverty, violence and disasters exacerbated by climate change.
The matter has emerged as a top political issue in the November US election, with President Joe Biden’s Republican challenger, former president Donald Trump, pushing the topic front and center.
“The globalization of indifference” on migrants, Francis said, “is a very ugly disease.”
Francis, 87, also addressed criticisms by conservative US bishops who oppose his efforts to revisit certain teachings and traditions.
A “conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that,” he said when asked about the bishops, adding “it is a suicidal attitude.”
Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has insisted on the importance of a church open to all, including member of the LGBT community, but he has faced strong resistance from conservative Catholics.
There was a particularly strong reaction when Francis opened the door to the blessing of gay couples last year, especially in African countries.
Calling gay people “a human fact,” Francis said in the interview: “To bless each person, why not? The blessing is for all.”
The pontiff also touched on the controversial topic of sex abuse within the Catholic Church.
He has made combatting sexual assault in the Church one of the main missions of his papacy, and insisted on a “zero tolerance” policy following multiple wide-reaching scandals.
“Unfortunately, the tragedy of the abuses is enormous,” he told CBS, adding that abuse “cannot be tolerated.”
“When there is a case of a religious man or woman who abuses, the full force of the law falls upon them,” Francis said.
But, he added, “there has been a great deal of progress.”
Biden tells Morehouse graduates that scenes in Gaza from the Israel-Hamas war break his heart, too
- “Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them,” Biden said as protesters called for end to war in Gaza and liberation of Palestinians
- Biden also condemned Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants as he stepped up effort to reach out to Black constituents
ATLANTA: President Joe Biden on Sunday offered his most direct recognition of US students’ anguish over the Israel-Hamas war, telling graduates of historically Black Morehouse College that he heard their voices of protest and that scenes from the conflict in Gaza break his heart, too.
“I support peaceful nonviolent protest,” he told students at the all-male college, some of whom wore Palestinian scarves known as keffiyehs around their shoulders on top of their black graduation gowns. “Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them.”
Biden said there’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, “that’s why I’ve called for an immediate ceasefire to stop the fighting” and bring home hostages still being held by Hamas after its militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The president’s comments came near the end of a commencement address in which he also reflected on American democracy and his role in safeguarding it.
“It’s one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world,” Biden said. “There’s nothing easy about it. I know it angers and frustrates many of you, including my family. But most of all I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well.”
To date, Biden had limited his public comments around the protests on US college campuses to upholding the right to peaceful protest.
The speech — and a separate one he gave later Sunday in Detroit — are part of a burst of outreach to Black constituents by the Democratic president, whose support among these voters has softened since their strong backing helped put him in the Oval Office.
Biden spent much of the approximately 30-minute speech focused on the problems at home. He condemned Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants and noted that the class of 2024 entered college during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Biden said it was natural for them, and others, to wonder whether the democracy “you hear about actually works for you.”
“If Black men are being killed in the street. What is democracy?” he asked. “The trail of broken promises that still leave Black communities behind. What is democracy? If you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot.”
Anti-war protests have roiled America’s college campuses. Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony. At Morehouse, the announcement that Biden would be the commencement speaker drew some backlash among the faculty and those who oppose the president’s handling of the war. Some Morehouse alumni circulated an online letter condemning administrators for inviting Biden and solicited signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind it.
The letter claimed that Biden’s approach to Israel amounted to support of genocide in Gaza and was out of step with the pacifism expressed by Martin Luther King Jr., Morehouse’s most famous graduate.
The Hamas attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials in the territory.
In the end, there were no disruptions of Morehouse’s commencement while applause for Biden mostly was subdued. At least seven graduates and one faculty member sat with their backs turned during Biden’s address, and another student draped himself in a Palestinian flag. Protesters near the ceremony carried signs that said “Free Palestine,” “Save the Children” and ”Ceasefire Now” as police on bikes kept watch.
On stage behind the president as he spoke, academics unfurled a Congolese flag. The African country has been mired in a civil war, and many racial justice advocates have called for greater attention to the conflict as well as American help in ending the violence.
During his speech, valedictorian DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher, of Chicago, said it was his duty to speak on the war in Gaza and recognize that both Palestinians and Israelis have suffered. He called for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”
Graduate Kingsley John said, “the temperature on campus was expected given we had the president of the United States come and speak.” John said he stood “in solidarity” with his classmates and that Biden “seemed to be reflective and open to hear the feedback.”
Morehouse awarded Biden an honorary doctor of laws degree. After accepting the honor, he joked that, “I’m not going home” as chants of “four more years” broke out in the audience. Biden then flew to Detroit to address thousands attending the local NAACP chapter’s annual Freedom Fund dinner.
Georgia and Michigan are among a handful of states that will help decide November’s expected rematch between Biden and Trump. Biden narrowly won Georgia and Michigan in 2020 and he needs strong Black voter turnout in Atlanta and Detroit if he hopes to repeat in November.
Biden spent part of the past week reaching out to Black constituents. He highlighted key moments in the Civil Rights Movement, from the 70th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed racial segregation in public schools to the Little Rock Nine, who helped integrate a public school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. He also met with members of the “Divine Nine” Black fraternities and sororities.
At the NAACP dinner, Biden told a largely Black crowd that numbered into the thousands that Trump wants to pardon those who were convicted of crimes during the insurrection at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and calls them “patriots.” He suggested that Trump would not have been so kind had they been people of color.
“Let me ask you, what do you think he would’ve done on Jan. 6 if Black Americans had stormed the Capitol?” Biden asked. “What do you think? I can only imagine.”
The speech gave Biden a chance to reach thousands of people in Wayne County, which historically has voted overwhelmingly Democratic but has shown signs of resistance to his reelection bid.
The county also holds one of the largest Arab American populations in the nation, predominantly in the city of Dearborn. Leaders there were at the forefront of an “uncommitted” effort that received over 100,000 votes in the state’s Democratic primary and spread across the country.
A protest rally and march against Biden’s visit took place in Dearborn in the afternoon.
In Detroit, guests at the NAACP dinner were met by over 200 pro-Palestinian protesters outside the entrance to the convention center. They waved Palestinian flags, held signs calling for a ceasefire and chanted “free, free Palestine.”
“Until Joe Biden listens to his key constituents, he’s risking handing the presidency to Donald Trump,” said Lexi Zeidan, a protest leader who help spearhead a protest effort that resulted in over 100,000 people voting “uncommitted” in February’s Democratic primary.
