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</div><div style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19121"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19122" lang="EN">Renate asked about Barcelona (province, I suppose, as well as
city) in relation to adjusting to current political trends (snip) “not only
Trump per se but this general shift right.” I’ll be very general here and I’d
recommend checking wikipedia for things like *2016 spanish general election*
and other obvious terms. As in the United States there are efforts
here to do away with the hegemony of the two party system. In the Spanish state
one might say that the Partido Popular is analogous to the GOP and the Partido
Socialista Obrero Espanyol to the Democratic party—at least in terms of the electoral
system. A difference is that smaller and less voted parties here can get seats
in the two chamber congress due to a different system of proportional
representation. As an aside let me state the obvious that Empyre’s recent mention
of the US
electoral college might be examined in such PR terms. But briefly the 2016 Spanish
general election is of interest bc the two major parties were forced to
negotiate with new new *smaller* parties before a govt could be formed.
Wikipedia for more.</span></div>
<div style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19123"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19124" lang="EN">Barcelona</span><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19125" lang="EN">, you’ll recall, is the capital city of the
autonomous region of Catalonia.
There are 17 ARs, governed by autonomous statutes (Wikipedia). The Catalan
independence movement is similar to that of Scotland. This is perhaps
interesting for the Empyre discussion regarding moves to alter two-party
tradition. Very briefly the Popular Unity Candidacy (Wikipedia) a small left
wing party favoring town hall style government *and* independence is an
important coalition partner in the Catalan government—based in the capital city
of Barcelona but of course with membership throughout the AR with similar
parties throughout the Spanish state. This is a small part of the story
obviously but I think the relationships to your question and to PR worldwide make
it of some interest. The link below is old but maybe useful. Best wishes,
William <br></span></div><div style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%" dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19207"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19125" lang="EN"><<a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/pere-vilanova/catalonia-spain-deadlock" class="" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19219">https://www.opendemocracy.net/pere-vilanova/catalonia-spain-deadlock</a>><br></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19276"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489305076792_19277"><br></div>
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