---
By Dick Nichols, Barcelona
November 30, 2012 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Most pre-election polls picked the main trends in the November 25 elections for the135-seat parliament of Catalonia. What they underestimated—massively—was the strength of those trends, and for two reasons. It was not clear how large the expected increase in voter participation would be and right until the last minute up to 30% of voters were undecided.
As things turned out these critical elections stirred political passions so much that participation reached a record of just under 70%--5% above the previous high for a Catalan parliamentary contest. From early morning long queues formed at polling stations as 610,000 more people than in 2010 lined up to make their point (an increase of 11%).
The election took place against the background of massive mobilisation around both the Catalan national struggle and all-Spanish social struggle, dramatised by the 1.5 million-strong Barcelona demonstration for Catalan independence on September 11 and the 1 million-strong turnout in the city for the November 14 general strike protest .
It also took place two years early because the conservative nationalist Convergence and Union (CiU) government, led by premier Artur Mas, decided that promising the people of Catalonia an act of free choice over independence was the only way of guaranteeing CiU’s survival as the rulers of the region. Before taking that plunge Artur Mas was just another hated implementer of austerity plummeting in the polls.