Spanish elections and politics

[Lord Halifax]

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http://www.euronews.com/2017/07/04/catalonia-vows-to-split-from-span-in-48-hours---after-october-vote

Supposing that the referendum takes place and the independentists win with the other side boycotting the vote, what happens next? Would Madrid send in soldiers? Or would they do that before the vote?

In theory you would have the Spanish government activating article 155 of the constitution, which states:

(...)

What that means is basically that Catalonia's government is suspended temporarily. PP has an absolute majority in the Senate so there's no chance of the opposition blocking that move somehow as well. It's also likely that the entire Catalan cabinet gets arrested by the Guardia Civil under charges of sedition, treason or something like that. After that, who knows?

If there's no resistance, then the thing ends there. There would probably be a temporary appointed governor or something, and maybe a snap regional election.

If there's resistance however, then you do have the repression, the army intervening and what not, but I personally think that's extremely unlikely. The Mossos (Catalonia's police) would probably not fight the national police or army, and other than protests where some members could turn violent, nothing else would happen.

Are there any majority Catalan units in the army?

[Lord Halifax]

Well, yesterday's protest against terrorism, with the slogan "No tinc por" (I'm not afraid) has been quite controversial since it has been politizised by basically everyone in the political spectrum. You had republican flags, Spanish flags, Pro-independence flags, signs protesting the king's relations with Saudi Arabia, etc. The king got booed as well.

Both sides politizised this. Why? Can't we all march against terrorism without making a political statement?

Its meaningless to march against terrorism since its something everybody are against and the protest has zero impact on the terrorists.

[Lord Halifax]

You can check the full text (in Catalan) here: https://cronicaglobal.elespanol.com/uploads/s1/72/68/24/Proposici%C3%B3%20de%20llei%20de%20transitorietat%20jur%C3%ADdica%20i%20fundacional%20de%20la%20rep%C3%BAblica%20(1).pdf

The link is too big.

[Lord Halifax]

Official (provisional) results from the referendum:

Yes 2,020,144(90 %)
No 176,566 (7,8 %)
Turnout: 2,262,464 (no official data but using the 2015 regional elections as a benchmark it implies 41% turnout)

There are still like 50000 votes not counted.

Where are they published?

[Lord Halifax]

Which is funny, because 99% of the world considers him Spanish.

99% of the world are ignorant about lots of things.

[Lord Halifax]

And just like that Cs has filed its own no confidence motion.

Election time, baby!

Also the “Cs = right-wing nationalists” meme is getting old

It's not a meme, but a simple fact. Facts do not get old.

[Lord Halifax]

Sánchez being elected also means that (at least for now) there will still be a large EU country with a left of center government. Had the vote failed, the largest EU country with a left of center government would have been Portugal (10.3 million).

Romania is bigger.

[Lord Halifax]

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This could reverse the rightward drift of the newspaper   

She is 67, retirement age in most countries. Is it normal to appoint people that old to such positions in Spain?

[Lord Halifax]

As for the other 'barons', they'll have to pass the elections in May 2019.

I am not sure what you mean by that.