EU election party to be illegalised by Spanish state.
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other press 
Thursday May 14, 2009 23:03
by gurggle - (iosaf doesn't think people understand Spain's voting list thing)
"Internationalist initiative" is a political alliance grouping formed to contest the EU parliament 2009 elections in the European constituency of the Spanish state. Its leader is the 93 year old, Madrid born, writer, dramatist, script-writer and Spanish film-director Alfonso Sastre, perhaps best known for being a member of the "1955 generation" of creative artists whose output and activity coincided with the opening of the Franco regime's attitude to art and literature which came along with its acceptance by the west under Eisenhower.
Mr Sastre was also third on the last list presented by ANV the illegalised Basque political party deemd to be a proxy of Batasuna.
Most people don't give a fig if the works ranging from that of anti-semites such as TS Eliot to the heroic voice of Paul Celan and then to the out and out fascist, Louis-Ferdinand Céline were first edited and translated into Spanish and published in Spain by a group of intellectuals who despite their political leanings being undoubtedly to the left and republican tradition could still transcend such to recognise the aesthetic merit of the literature of aforementioned TS Eliot and Celine
Most people outside of the Spanish state don't really understand the central failing of its pretensions to liberal democracy, unsurprisingly for they rarely attempt a serious critique of more than one of the liberal democratic systems, either in the comfort of their livingroom or during the lull after the fifth decade of the rosary and that last inning of pater nosters which precede all decent hurling fixtures.
But it works like this :- Parties present lists of candidates which are then voted on by the people. The leader of any party is number one on the list and the second in command is number two and so on down the long list of hopefuls. The votes are made for the parties not individuals. Enough votes given to a list bring more names on the list to plonk their bums on seats and figure out how to convince their compatriots and fellow deputies to promote the benefits of the anglo-saxon expense account gravy train .
Under such a system the quick and sharp wit of Ireland will note, the PD party would have seen elected in the last general election of Ireland both its mammy Harney and its big swinging mickey Mc Dowell. The Spanish system makes it impossible to "not vote" for a politician on a party list and still vote for that party.
That sucks.
What sucks even more to the metaphorically comparative level of unhygienic felching is the undeniable fact that this party list system disallows organic change within party political systems working against any lower ranking party member demanding change and thus favours the imposition of candidates from the centre of the political structure.
& we thought the idea of most people in Britain not voting for the party that always governs them was poo.
But the importance of this tale of the usual when it comes to all things Basque - is not actually to be found in either Biscay or the kingdom of Spain. It raises the question why EU parliament elections are not subject to a common procedure of franchise exercising :- be it first past the post or the byzantine workings of a Hondt mechanism proportional representation.
Or are we simply to accept Gibraltans get to vote with thier high turnouts for their candidates who actually "represent" Cornwall whilst the Polish (rumour has it) simply stand up on fruit boxes and publically call out the name of the msot rightous man in their village and the Italians content themselves with their Berlusconi generational belittling of women and simply wave their boxer shorts in support of the prettiest and thinnest lady candidate.
{ i do hope you understand irony }
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Information on the party "internationalist initiative" in Spanish :-
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iniciativa_Internacionalis...eblos
biography of Alfonso Sastre
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_Sastre
his website
http://www.sastre-forest.com/
news from "Kaos on the Net" the anarcho bunch who don't vote anyway on who would be on that list - but then you note that Josep Garganté who is a noted member of the CGT (A Catalan anarchosyndicalist trade union who split from the CNT on the question of election participation) is indeed number three on the list.