The Catalan parliament finally voted in a new president on May 14, 199 days after the pro-independence bloc held on to its majority at the December 21 elections imposed by the Spanish government.
Spain
鈥淟a Manada鈥 (The Wolf Pack) is the name of a WhatsApp group chosen by five men to organise a trip to los sanfermines 鈥 the running of the bulls 鈥 in Pamplona, Navarra. During the festival, in the early hours of July 7, 2016, they gang raped an 18-year-old woman in a small room under the stairwell of a block of flats.
Three hours later, one of them shared a video of the attack in another male-only WhatsApp group with 28 members, called 鈥淒anger鈥. One of the five was an off-duty National Guard officer, another a soldier. During the trial, evidence of another attack committed by four of the five several months earlier was uncovered.
Despite this, although the trial found the men guilty of sexual abuse, it cleared them of rape.
Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA), which waged a decades-long military campaign for Basque independence, released its 鈥淪tatement to the Basque Country: declaration on harm caused鈥 on April 8. The statement is an apology for the suffering arising from more than 40 years of violent operations that ended in a permanent ceasefire in 2011.
The most extreme Spanish reaction to the April 5 ruling of the Higher Regional court of German state Schleswig-Holstein that freed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was from radio shock jock Federico Jim茅nez Losantos.
鈥淕eneral strike! General strike! General strike!鈥 In protests across Catalonia after the March 23 jailing of five MPs and the March 25 detention in Germany of Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, these words rang out loud and appeared on placards and banners everywhere.
A general strike would certainly make the Spanish government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the senior judges doing its bidding think twice about their relentless persecution of Catalonia鈥檚 pro-independence MPs.
Except that a general strike, while desirable and important as a goal, will not happen until there is an earthquake in the Catalan trade union movement.
The announcement by Spain鈥檚 right-wing Popular Party (PP) government of a miniscule 0.25% rise for pensions has brought pensioners out onto the streets in the hundreds of thousands in recent weeks, writes Julian Coppens from Merida in the Spanish state.聽
Of all the International Women鈥檚 Day (IWD) demonstrations held in an unprecedented 177 countries on March 8, the Spanish state stood out as the site of the largest mobilisation for women鈥檚 equality. In fact, it was the greatest mobilisation for women鈥檚 right in history, with almost 6 million people 鈥 overwhelmingly women 鈥 striking and demonstrating in about 120 cities and towns.
The title of Adam Hochschild鈥檚 marvellous book on the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War is taken from French author Albert Camus鈥檚 requiem for that doomed struggle: 鈥淢en of my generation have had Spain in our hearts 鈥 It was there that they learned 鈥 that one can be right and yet be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, and there are times when courage is not rewarded鈥.
About five million women went on strike聽and marched in Spain on March 8 in support of a call for an international women鈥檚 strike to mark聽International Women鈥檚 Day and demand a just and egalitarian society, that day.
Early on January 30, Roger Torrent, speaker of the Catalan parliament elected on December 21, suspended that day鈥檚 session, which had been set to elect outgoing president Carles Puigdemont as head of the new Catalan government.
The decision of Torrent, leading member of the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), came after the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled two days earlier that electing the exiled Puigdemont could not take place in absentia.
The main war aim of the People鈥檚 Party (PP) government of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for the December 21 Catalan elections was to stop the re-election of a pro-independence government.
During the election campaign, the Spanish political, economic and media establishment even dreamed of the election of a pro-unionist administration on the back of unprecedented participation from a 芦silent majority禄 supposedly in favour of continuing the tie with Spain.
A huge demonstration of 95,000 people took place in Bilbao in the Basque Country on January 13 in favour of human rights and peace, and to support the rights of Basque political prisoners, Basque Peace Process reported on January 16.
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