I was talking to a Catalan this weekend and he was telling me that for the first time, he didn’t bother to vote in Catalunya’s elections this year. He said he usually voted for the Socialist PSC party but was too disillusioned by the “meaningless” squabbling that characterised the three years of the last coalition government. He wasn’t the only one either. The turnout for this election was a mere 56% of the population – the second lowest ever.
He went on to tell me that all the fuss about Catalan nationalism and furor over whether Catalunya should be legally allowed to call itself a nation was a charade to avoid dealing with the real social and economic problems which affect the average Catalan. He said, “I don’t care what language I have to speak or whether Catalunya is defined as a nation – I care about things such as a decent health service, affordable housing, education etc.”
It always amazes me when Catalans complain about their political system.
Compared to the centralised nature of and the lack of difference between the two major parties in Britain, it seems to me that politics here is positively vibrant. Catalunya enjoys a large degree of freedom from the Spanish state and there are 5 main parties in Catalunya with their own differing ideologies and beliefs. Am I just illusioned here as to the true extent of democracy in Catalunya or is it simply that Spaniards expect more from their political system? I tend to believe it is the latter. There is a much stronger social ethic here than demands that certain basic minimums are provided by their political leaders.
In Britain, I think that this was quite literally beaten out of people during Thatcher’s reign and promptly forgotten in the individually orientated consumer society that we have today. Now, an overwhelming feeling of apathy characterises Britain’s attitude towards politics as Labour and the Tories have virtually joined hands in worship of privatisation and so called “economic liberalisation” – i.e. liberating the State and its corporate buddies from any form of social responsibility for its citizens.
As an expat, I often live in a bubble here as to the real social and economic realities of Catalunya. In fact, I think for many expats its one of the best things about living abroad – as a foreigner you are automatically unengaged and to some extent, unaffected by many of the political and social concerns that affect natives here. For those few that do take an interest in politics here however, it would be foolish to think that Catalunya is some kind of political utopia compared to back home.
The poor turnout at the Catalan election clearly shows that something is going wrong with the social and economic management of Catalunya. Most disturbing of all, the highest court of justice in Catalunya banned many democratic demonstrations during the election campaign. They drafted in riot police to get-rid of students campaigning for affordable housing across the region and members of SOS Racismo who were campaigning for immigrants to be allowed to vote. The Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Catalunya ruled that the protests “weren’t relevant to the election campaign”.
Right-wing PP leader Josep Piquet said, “Nothing like this has happened since Franco times”, not indicating whether that was a good or bad thing in his opinion.
Few of the other parties bothered to comment proving their true dedication to democracy in practice.
