Vote in the Catalan election

[HVC]

You two need more southern European friends

[viper37]

What's with all the facial hair on catalan politicians?  Does no one know how to work a razor?

That's not very multicultural of you.

What happened with your policies of respecting everyone's cultural identities?

[Tonitrus]

I think it depends on age for me.
20-something woman with a cross necklace: Probably a fundamentalist (assuming the rest of her clothes are conservative of course. I have ran across the occasional goth or other sort wearing one just for fashion).
50+ woman with a cross necklace: Very probably just something that belonged to her mother or she got as a teenager or the like and in no way indicative of her beliefs.

I have a work colleague from Lebanon who wears a cross. Given the particulars of that country, I would think that is an example of being very telling, if not necessarily of one's beliefs, but likely of one's identity/background.

[celedhring]

So, nationalists have lost their majority for the first time in 40 years, with socdems (#4) finishing first in votes and seats. Only Puigdemont's (#8) party has slightly improved results, the ruling pro-indy leftie party (#2) crashed and burned.

However, I can't see a viable coalition. I think we're heading towards a repeat election.

Cross-wearing xenophobic chick seems to have got a seat. So has the winner of the languish poll, although her party (non-nationalist lefties) has lost seats, too.

[Valmy]

What the hell happened to the Cs? They went from like 25% of the vote to nothing in what seems like five minutes.

[celedhring]

They have been in

What the hell happened to the Cs? They went from like 25% of the vote to nothing in what seems like five minutes.

Many things, none of them good. My general theory is that they were a coalition of very disparate elements tenuously held by opposition to Catalan nationalism. As the threat waned so did the glue that held the party together, and Vox captured the full-throated anti-separatist vote anyway. A bunch of miscalculations, intestine infighting, and being completely outplayed by PP in the game of thrones didn't help either.

[Iormlund]

I don't think it was PP who buried them, I'd say it was one of those genius moves by Sánchez.

Cs could have stolen votes from the moderate left, so our cunning Pedro painted them as right-wing from the start.
It didn't help that Ribera soon embraced the role, as he saw the possibility to replace PP as THE right party. Working with Vox solidified the transition from liberals to conservatives and they lost moderate votes (IIRC one or two million) - meaning they could no longer dethrone PP. With no niche to fill, they vanished into thin air.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah Cs are like the poster boy of the "liberals breaking the political mould" to "oops fascism" pipeline.

I think it was why Macron distanced himself and his movement from them because, form his perspective, what's the point of a radical, pro-European centrist party that's working with the radical right - that's what they're there to beat. Sadly I think that clear line is diminishing and there are increasingly many such cases.