Catalonia Update

For the past week, I've been watching the pace of things in Spain and Catalonia go back and forth. 

What appears likely now (happening tomorrow - Saturday)....is that Article 155 of the Constitution will be activated by the federal government of Spain.

They wil revoke the regional agreement of the state of Catalonia and Madrid, and begin the process of bringing them 'back in'.  How?

Well, it's suggested now that new elections will be forced onto Catalonia in January.  The Prime Minister (Rajoy) thinks this will lead Catalonia back to the right attitude. 

Problems?

Well....you can only run an election if you have candidates.  My guess is that most of the parties in the region will refuse to play along or nominate candidates.  Some might go to the extent of nominating insane members of the public to represent them in Madrid, or possibly electing criminals.

Then, you have the problem of polling places.  My guess is that half of the general public who are poll managers....will bluntly say 'no' and will refuse to run the polling station.  Those forced into managing the poll stations?  They will probably call in sick on election day in mass numbers (my guess is that 90-percent will fail to show up).

The military running this?  You'd have to come up with enough people to run roughly 2,300 polling sites in Catalonia (mostly at schools).  You'd be talking about at least 20,000 troops required, with another twenty-thousand cops in protection operations.

If you only had 7-percent of the registered public to vote in the election....would that make it even a valid election?  If you tried to suggest this to the news media....folks would laugh over the commentary.

You could have entire neighborhoods where no one shows up.  Or you could have teens showing up to intimidate the police or military into reacting as 'thugs'. 

As bad as it might be now....come January, I see this only getting worse.