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The Catalan elections took place yesterday, and as was widely expected the winner was Artur Mas and the Convergencia I Unio Party that used to be presided by Jordi Pujol. Mr. Mas and the CiU won 48 seats, whilst the Socialists turned out to be the biggest losers with only win 37 seats – a drop of five; the radical ERC party also lost 2 seats to win 21; EU/ICV won three more seats to have a total of twelve and Ciutatans de Catalunia have three seats for the first time. The Partido Popular lost one seat, and now have 14. These results mean that Mr. Mas will now have to undertake some negotiations if he is to be the next President of Catalunia. However, the voter turnout yesterday was only 56,77%, the worst result in recent memory and a drop of six percentage points from the last time elections took place in the autonomy. As far as any possible agreements are concerned, it seems fairly possible that CiU could make an agreement with ERC, which would result in 69 seats – an absolute majority – but there are apparently internal divisions within that party make this seem somewhat remote. It also seems probable that the Socialist Candidate for the Presidency Jose Montilla would not be content by merely becoming a de facto Catalan Prime Minister if that group makes an agreement with Mr Mas, which seems somewhat doubtful. Whilst the Partido Popular see this as the first major defeat for the Prime Minister, almost every political party was highly surprised at the rise of the Ciutatans Party, led by the young Alberto Rivera.
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Police in the Canary Islands have arrested a 40-year-old man after following his car as it zigzagged down the street at a relatively high speed. To their surprise the driver turned out to be Miguel Angel M. G., the first Spaniard ever to lose all the points on his driving licence after the points system was introduced last July. After his car was stopped, he allegedly told the police that they ‘could do what you like, as I don’t care whether I lose another 14 points’. Given an alco-test, he was shown to be driving three times over the limit, as well as smoking a joint at the time of his arrest. He will appear in court today. As a result of the law, he will appear accused of drunk driving, and not of driving without a licence.
The French weekly review, the Nouvel Observateur has published the details of what it says was a confidential report by a trades union that contains many eye-witness reports of brutal attacks carried out on public servants who work in the worst affected areas in the suburbs of Paris. Amongst the incidents reported were blocks of cement dropped on paramedic crews, washing machines that were pushed off balconies and onto fire engines, and agents of the electricity company EDF being too frightened to cut off customers who had not paid their bills as they were threatened and attacked with knives, guns and fists. It was also revealed that in these areas, some fourteen attacks are carried out on the police each day, with some of the incidents taking place after the officers had been lured into ambushes. The report concludes that the day that France witnesses the public lynching of a policeman is not far off.
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