Canarian voters abandon mainstream parties in Euro elections

Results show major swing to the left

by James Tweedie, Tenerife, Monday May 26 2014

European Parliament election results from the Canary Islands showed a marked swing to the left on Monday, with the big two parties unable to garner half the votes between them.

The conservative People's Party (PP), in government nationally, 'won' the May 25 elections with a mere 23 per cent of the vote on a 37 per cent turnout, while the social-democratic Socialist Workers' Party of Spain (PSOE) came a close second with 22 per cent.

The pro-business Canarian Coalition (CC), the largest party in the regional parliament, managed a paltry 12 per cent.

Left-wing parties made large gains. The United Left (IU, which includes the Communist Party of Spain), in alliance with the Greens, increased its total vote from almost 10,000 in 2009 to 59,000, a share of 10.5 per cent.

But the big surprise was Podemos ('We Can'), a new left-wing party only formed in January 2014 and led by academic Pablo Iglesias, which won 11 per cent of the vote in the Canaries.

The liberal, pro-EU Progress and Democracy Union (UPyD) came sixth with nearly 7 per cent of the vote, while the Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA) was seventh with almost 2 per cent. The separatist Canarian National Alternative (ANC) polled a mere 0.6 per cent.

The Canarian poll broadly mirrored results nationwide. The PP won 16 of Spain's 54 European Parliament seats, with the PSOE a close second with 24. The Plural Left (as the IU-Green alliance is known) won six seats and Podemos 5.

Other left-wing parties won seats, including the Catalan separatist Left for the Right to Decide (EPDD) with two seats, the The People Decide (LPD), a Eurosceptic coalition of separatist parties including the ANC which won one seat, and the pro-EU eco-socialist European Spring, which also took one seat.

The mystery of the Guanches

The origins and language of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands remain a mystery, writes Dr Sabina Goralski Filonov Translation by James Tweedie The guanches, the aboriginals of the Canary Islands whose origin, lost in the mists of time, still arouses intense and passionate debate and great controversy about their origins and the how the seven Canary Islands were populated – which according to some studies occurred between 10,000 and 8,000 years BC. Literally, the word ‘Guan’ means man or person and ‘Chenech’ or ‘Chinet’ is applied to the island of Tenerife, thus meaning a man or inhabitant of Tenerife – although according to Núñez de la Peña, the Spanish named them the Guanchos during the conquest of the islands. But with the passage of time, experts in the subject are questioning whether the word Guanche was used to designate the primitive inhabitants of all the islands in the pre-Hispanic period. The term ‘Guanche’ has also ceased to be applied to the di...

Sun-crossed haters endanger 220,000 lives

My stepmother Shanthie Naidoo and her sister Ramnie were on an overnight flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow for a speaking tour when Extinction Rebellion offshoot Heathrow Pause began wilfully endangering aircraft by flying drones over the airport this morning. Shanthie is an ANC struggle veteran who lived in exile in London from 1973 to 1993, apart from some time in the exile community in Mazimbu, Tanzania. She and all her immediate family were jailed by the Apartheid government for political reasons. Shanthie's late brother Indres did 10 years on Robben Island and later wrote the book 'Island in Chains'. Their grandfather Thembi Naidoo worked alongside Mohandas K Gandhi during the civil disobedience campaigns against the early form of Apartheid. Extinction Rebellion has chosen for its logo a variation on the 'sonnenkreuz', a symbol used by both proto-fascist neo-pagan organisations and modern neo-Nazis. Around 220,000 passengers fly in and out of Heathr...

Homeless dogs’ home fights for compensation

Dingo Dogs owner Phil Nelson at his since-demolished home. DOGS’ home owner Phil Nelson has vowed to take legal action following his eviction from his Dingo Dogs animal sanctuary in August. by James Tweedie Indian-born Mr Nelson, along with former girlfriend and Dingo Dogs treasurer Leigh Crouch were left homeless by the court-ordered eviction and have been sharing a small hut in the mountains near Las Chafiras with ten dogs and three cats ever since. Mr Nelson’s dispute with his former landlord began in September 2004, after he officially registered his rented hillside finca as an animal sanctuary. It was a requirement of his registration that he keep proper financial records, including receipts for payment of rent. Mr Nelson says that despite having a rental contract and paying his rent “as regular as clockwork” for years, his landlord never gave him a receipt even after he began asking for one every month in 2004. In May 2005, after his landlord ha...

US allies say no Venezuela war

Lima Group rules out intervention Washington's Latin American allies will not back any invasion of Venezuela to overthrow its elected government. Peruvian Foreign Minister Néstor Popolizio insisted on Tuesday that the 'Lima Group' of nations – those hostile to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government – was against “military intervention.” “As the Lima Group we have said that we do not support any military intervention in Venezuela,” Mr Popolizio said at a meeting of the group in the Canadian capital Ottawa. The prospect of a US-led invasion to back extremist Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guadió's claim to the presidency appeared more likely on Tuesday after White House National Security Advisor John Bolton appeared at a press conference holding a notepad scrawled with “5,000 troops to Colombia.” But Mr Popolizio insisted “we have no information” about a planned invasion. At Tuesday's pressconference US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin annou...

Brazilian bribers Odebrecht funded Venezuelan right

CORRUPT Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht funded opposition parties in Venezuela and elsewhere, its former CEO told Peruvian prosecutors on Wednesday. Marcelo Odebrecht told a hearing the corporation paid off the Venezuelan Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition and other opposition parties across the continent to dissuade them from challenging corruptly-awarded contracts. “Our intention was to support many candidates of the opposition, even knowing that they would not be elected,” he said. “We supported them in some way because the opposition can also create problems.” “One way to create a network is through support,” Mr Odebrecht added. “The way to avoid the opposition was precisely to attend to its campaign needs.” Court documents show the corporation paid more than £70 million to Venezuelan “government officials and intermediaries” between 2006 and 2015. Last June former Odebrecht Venezuela director Euzenando Azevedo confessed to depositing money in a privat...

Search This Blog