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Pro-Independence parties win Catalan elections
Jordi Oriola Folch    Off_Guardian , 17 February 2021
off-guardian.org/2021/02/16/pro-independence-parties-win-catalan-elections/


For the third time in a row, the Catalan pro-independence movement wins with an absolute majority in the Catalan elections. It has won resoundingly with 74 seats, more than the 68 that establishes the majority (in the previous elections it had won with 70). This time also with 51.22% of the votes, making it the majority among the voters.

The elections were due next year, but they were brought forward because the Spanish courts overthrew Catalan President Joaquim Torra for having disobeyed an electoral board that ordered him to take down a banner criticising the imprisonment of Catalan politicians. The President refused, citing freedom of expression, and the Spanish judiciary considered that the contempt was sufficient to force the removal of the President of the Parliament of Catalonia and cause the elections to be brought forward.

Furthermore, after consulting experts on the pandemic, the provisional Catalan executive decided to postpone the elections for five months until the third wave of Covid-19 had subsided. However, yet again, the Spanish judiciary interfered forcing the elections to be held on 14th February.

This is the same Spanish Justice that keeps 9 Catalan politicians and activists in prison, that has issued search and arrest warrants against 7 exiled Catalan politicians (which the German and Belgian courts rejected because they did not see the accusations as justified or because they understood that there were no guarantees of a fair trial in Spain), it is the same Spanish Justice that maintains the search and arrest warrant against a Majorcan musician –exiled in Belgium– for singing against the King of Spain and that is imminently going to imprison another Catalan musician, Pablo Hasel, for also having sung against the King.

In this context, and despite having the entire state apparatus and the Spanish press against them, independence has won again, and has done so obtaining a larger absolute majority than ever and with over 51% of the votes. In front of the pro-independence movement, we have the former Spanish socialist health minister during the pandemic, who has had the full support of the state, the press and unionism in general, and also the Spanish extreme-right of VOX, which has burst onto the Catalan Parliament with 11 seats.

Given this scenario, the Spanish state and the European Union cannot deny the right of self-determination of Catalan society, which must be expressed in a referendum with democratic guarantees, transparency and without foul play.

All in all, democracy is about allowing citizens to decide at the ballot box, not about violating their will with the application of laws that should in fact serve to guarantee there is a framework that respects what societies want for themselves.

Jordi Oriola i Folch is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder of Transforma Films. His work has been broadcast on television stations around the world and touches on issues of human rights, sustainability, democratic participation and community work, historical memory and the economic crisis. He has also taught audiovisual classes in the Basque Country, Catalonia, South America and Africa. He can be reached through his website or twitter.



https://english.elpais.com/society/2021-02-08/spain-approaches-end-of-phase-1-of-covid-vaccination-campaign.html

El Pais - PABLO LINDE
Madrid - 08 FEB 2021 
Spain approaches end of phase 1 of Covid vaccination campaign

Spain’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign is entering the final stages of the process of immunizing residents of senior residences, while the majority of healthcare workers have also received their first jab – many have also got the second. Meanwhile, the final part of this first phase, inoculating adults with need for daily assistance even if they are not in residential care, has begun in the Canary Islands, Murcia and Navarre. This process is expected to get going in the rest of the country before the middle of February.

EL PAÍS has collected statistics in an attempt to take a snapshot of where the vaccination process has got to in Spain and these are the principal conclusions. Despite a year having passed since the first coronavirus infections having been detected in the country, the system for collecting data on the health crisis is still deficient. The Health Ministry has not centralized the collection of information on the vaccination process and just 11 of the country’s 17 autonomous regions have supplied sufficiently detailed figures.
The process is both complex and flexible. The first three groups in phase 1 of the campaign overlap in order to optimize the process, and so that it continues without pause. Healthcare workers started receiving the vaccine before the process finished in senior residences, and adults with need for daily assistance will start being immunized before all healthcare staff have had their doses.

Along the same lines, some regions are already planning for the over-80s – who are the first group in phase 2 – to start the process before phase 1 has finished. There are around 380,000 adults with need for daily assistance, and they are a complicated group to vaccinate given that home visits are often needed. It could be more efficient to vaccinate non-dependent seniors at the same time – this group is made up of 2.8 million people and accounts for six in every 10 Covid deaths in Spain. In January of this year, more than 1,300 people over the age of 80 died every week with the disease.

To complicate the situation further, not all of the approved vaccines are going to be administered to everyone. The AstraZeneca vaccines, which will start arriving in Spain this week, will only be given to people aged between 18 and 55, given that this is the group where clinical trials have proved it to be effective. For now, the Health Ministry has decided that it will be used to immunize healthcare workers who are not on the front line, and next week a decision will be made on which section of the population to prioritize – it could be essential workers or young people with underlying health conditions.
This, in effect, is what some regions are already doing. It is not completely clear which healthcare workers are being immunized in phase 1, and in many cases, the authorities have opted to give all staff in hospitals their doses, independently of their role. In Madrid, for example, a higher percentage of healthcare workers have received the second dose of the vaccine than among seniors who live in residences. This is despite the fact that senior residences – where more than half of official Covid deaths took place in Spain, according to the Health Ministry’s figures – were the absolute priority of the central government’s vaccination plan.

That said, the available data suggests that immunity is not far off for residents of the country’s senior residences. With the information supplied by the regions, nearly all residents and staff have got their first dose, and the majority of regions have administered the second dose to more than half of the recipients.

The process in residences is being delayed due to outbreaks in some of these centers. According to regional health departments consulted by EL PAÍS, this is not presenting a problem given that the process is simply being postponed where there is a high number of people infected.
Data supplied last week by the Catalan regional authorities show that the vaccines are starting to have an effect, and that number of new infections is rising less inside such residences compared to outside. Fernando Simón, the director of the Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts (CCAES), also said on Thursday that outbreaks in these centers are falling and that comparisons made by the ministry between the over-65s who live in residences and those who do not show a lower infection rate among the former.

The full protection offered by the vaccines, however, does not arrive until a week after the second dose. With the extreme levels of transmission that are currently being seen in Spain – the 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants is around 750 – it is no surprise that the virus is finding its way into senior residences during this process, infecting inhabitants, and even claiming the lives of those who have been inoculated. The risk after the first shot is low, but it still exists.
The latest data from the Health Ministry shows that all regions have administered more than 70% of the doses that they have received. The authorities insist that the problem now will not be the capacity to deliver the vaccines, but rather the number that Spain will receive. From this weekend onward, that number will rise, with, for example, AstraZeneca sending 1.8 million doses this month. And it will go up even more in March, which is when a new vaccine – from Janssen – may be added to the list. The vaccination process for adults with need for daily assistance even if they are not in residential care will be a good means to measure the agility of the system.
With reporting by María Sosa, Isabel Valdés and Lucía Bohórquez.
English version by Simon Hunter.









Leftinspain
I am a  bit of an anomaly, a British  migrant, an expat if you like,   living in Spain, who sees life from a left point of view.

Catalan independence trial: what you need to know

9/2/2019

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Twelve leaders charged with calling a referendum and declaring independence in 2017

 09 February 2019 11:44 AM byGuifré Jordan | Barcelona
Events to be judged

In broad terms, what will be judged is the whole independence bid, which the public prosecutor claims all started in 2012 with a preconceived plan.

The sessions will revolve around some major events during that time, including the October 1, 2017 referendum and its organization.

This includes the mass protests against the Spanish police raids of some Catalan government buildings aimed at halting the vote on September 20, only 11 days before the referendum.

The declaration of independence, passed on October 27, 2017 by the parliament, will also be in the spotlight in the Spanish Supreme Court.

Individuals in the dock

All the Catalan government members during the referendum who did not go into exile will go before the judges. That is former vice president Oriol Junqueras, and former ministers Josep Rull, Jordi Turull, Dolors Bassa, Raül Romeva, Joaquim Forn, Meritxell Borràs, Carles Mundó and Santi Vila.
The parliament speaker during that period, Carme Forcadell, will also face trial, as will the two leaders of the main pro-independence civil organizations on September 20, 2017, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart.

They have all been in pre-trial prison at some point –most of them for a year or more.

Some other Catalan officials have also been charged, but are in exile so they will not face court: the former president Carles Puigdemont, former ministers Meritxell Serret, Toni Comín, Clara Ponsatí and Lluís Puig; and former senior MPs Marta Rovira and Anna Gabriel.

Crimes and sentences requested
The public prosecutor is requesting prison sentences of up to 25 years for each of them, with most accused of rebellion and misuse of public funds. The proposed joint prison sentences add up to a total of 177 years.

Spain's solicitor general, representing the government in the case, has not charged the leaders with rebellion, but with sedition and misuse of public funds, and demands prison sentences of between 7 and 12 years, totaling 119 years.

The far-right Vox party is the private prosecutor in the trial, and it requests prison sentences of up to 74 years –making a total of 702 years behind bars.

All the defenses deny all the charges and have called for the leaders to be acquitted.

Public prosecutor's arguments

The public prosecutor claims that the defendants orchestrated a "general uprising, leading to acts of force, aggression and violence," and that they were "aware" that violence could erupt.

It is also alleged there were "joint" efforts by the government, the parliament, and the main grassroots associations to get international recognition for Catalonia's independence and to "apply pressure so as to force the State to capitulate."
The prosecutor also says that organizing the independence bid led to the misuse of public funds to the tune of 3.1 million euros, which was used to carry out the vote.

The "intimidatory force represented by mass public demonstrations," and the "use of the Mossos d'Esquadra [Catalan police] as an armed police force" to hold the referendum are also among the prosecution's arguments.

Defendants' arguments

The defendants claim "judicial persecution" against them, and that they have suffered a violation of their fundamental rights during the inquiry.

They also say that the independence movement has always been peaceful, including the events of September 20, 2017, and the referendum some days later.

Indeed, they maintain that the only violence came from the Spanish police on October 1, and deny giving any political orders to the Catalan police, or spending any public money on the vote –they say Spain had complete control of government expenses from July 2017.
According to the defendants, holding any debate or vote in parliament cannot be considered a crime, nor is organizing a referendum.

The figures for the trial

The 'special case 20907/2017,' the official name of the trial in the Supreme Court, will have seven judges, 12 prosecuted individuals, three prosecutors (the public one, the solicitor general and Vox) and eight defense teams.

The solicitor general requests up to 12 years in jail for each defendant, with the public prosecutor calling for up to 25, and Vox up to 74.

When the trial starts, Cuixart and Sànchez will have been in custody for 484 days, while Romeva and Junqueras will have spent 467 days behind bars. Bassa, Forcadell, Rull, Turull and Romeva will have spent some 350 days locked up.

Some 600 journalists have been registered to attend the trial in Madrid. They work for 150 media outlets, 50 of which are international.
Meanwhile, more than 500 witnesses have been called to testify before the judges.
www.catalannews.com/news/item/catalan-independence-trial-what-you-need-to-know?fbclid=IwAR0q_oeUr18iPp3FS4UmLd9t7Uo1vjU0Y660gUVBT0ZCAQbvDw3yRMrerT0
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    I am a  bit of an anomaly, a British  migrant, an expat if you like,   living in Spain, who sees life from a left point of view. 

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