The unofficial Catalan referendum turns out a ridiculous 30 percent of voters

December 14th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

The unofficial Catalan referendum with voting taking place in 166 municipalities yesterday is one of the highlights of today’s Spanish press.

ABC headlines that both the CiU and ERC parties have closed the candidate door to Joan Laporta :-) , the Chairman of Barcelona football club, who is a fierce supporter of independence. ABC considers that the popularist personality of Laporta does not fit with the nationalist parties. The paper also notes that the turn out yesterday was less than 30%.

El Mundo considers that the ‘mask’ of the voting has given an impulse to the seperatists, with CiU saying that ‘a new cycle about the right to decide’ is beginning.
Público headlines the ‘Yes’ won, but only 30% voted. It says the ERC and CiU are demanding the right to decide.

El País also highlights the low participation and La Razón goes as far as to call it ridiculous.


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  1. Trackback by Bitacoras.com on 14 December 2009:

    Información Bitacoras.com…

    Valora en Bitacoras.com: The unofficial Catalan referendum with voting taking place in 166 municipalities yesterday is one of the highlights of today’s Spanish press, Monday 14th December 2009….

  2. Pingback by Tweets that mention Unofficial Catalan referendum turns out a pathetic 30 percent of voters | Life in Catalonia - Catalonia Spain -- Topsy.com on 14 December 2009:

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by catalonia, Steve T. Steve T said: The unofficial Catalan referendum turns out a ridiculous 30 percent of voters – http://shar.es/a8GBm [...]

  3. Comment by Mohammad on 14 December 2009:

    Ridiculous? With morales 95% of Yes? That means in official referendum independence will win if the percentage of vote is less than 60%. Do you remember the % of voters in the last ellections?

  4. Comment by admin on 14 December 2009:

    @Mohammad Although there was a massive yes vote at 94.71%, turnout reaching just 27%. 3.53% voted ‘No’, while there were 1.76% blank votes and 0.34% were void.

    With only 27% of people turning up you’re going to have to do a little bit better than that fella. Maybe that means that the other 73% didn’t give a toss or don’t want independence – something to think about…

  5. Comment by Neil on 14 December 2009:

    As this was merely an unofficial poll, I’d say that the turn out wasn’t too shabby at all. If / when a true and binding referendum occurs, I’d expect a record breaking turnout. Those who say the poor turnout is proof that an Independent Catalonia is a joke / ridiculous really are missing the point of all this. If they stand by their assessments, they’d surely be happy for an official referendum to go ahead as it would presumably fall on its arse. Something tells me though that such people would still be against it. What say you Steve?

    Joan Laporta. Hahaha. Hopefully he’ll fade away into oblivion…

  6. Comment by Steve on 14 December 2009:

    Aw for gawd’s sake Tom, lord luv a duck…don’t know if a binding referendum will take place soon but it seems to me that those who bothered to turn up is indicative as to what might happen in the future, we’ll have to see. It seems that people were more concerned about their Sunday’s pollo a l’ast than going down to the poll station to vote. :-)

  7. Comment by Neil on 14 December 2009:

    So, you believe that the turnout to a poll that has no power of change attached to it is indicative to a would be turnout for a binding referendum – one which would completely change the future of all those eligible to vote.

    You also believe my name is Tom when it is in fact Neil. Not very good at this assessing and concluding malarkey are you Steve :-)

  8. Comment by Steve on 14 December 2009:

    er yes Tom – the pollo a l’ast quip wasn’t a joke, pretty much sums up the voters if you ask me ;-)

  9. Comment by Tom on 14 December 2009:

    You don’t provide a very well thought-out analysis. As has been pointed out previously, there’s no use wasting your time looking at what ABC, El Mundo and La Razón have to say about Catalan politics. For someone who’s been in Catalonia for so long, it’s surprising that you don’t know anything about the place.

  10. Comment by Iu on 15 December 2009:

    94.71% of 27% is 25.38%. So, extrapolating this results to the total of Catalonia, one in four Catalans wants independence, or 1.85 million. And remember this ‘referendum’ is not such a thing: it is not binding, and was organised by volunteers in 2 months. When there will be a true referendum, people will go to vote more, of course.

  11. Comment by Steve on 15 December 2009:

    Thanks for the maths, so that’s like taking 100 Spaniards and asking them what their favourite TV program is and hey what do you know 25% enjoy Salvame Deluxe – so that means 1 in 4 Spaniards like to watch abslute crap, does it? Hey, might even be true, too. ;-)

    If the good Catalan people can’t be bothered to vote in these “ilegal” elections or referendums, do you really think they’ll get out of bed to vote if it’s the real deal? These referendums are usually only full of nationalists and extremists anyway.

    Did you vote? I’d like to know how many English people who live in Barcelona or Catalonia voted last Sunday and why. Does it really concern us? Maybe the town of Vic thinks it’s great with their large immigrant population from Africa to fall back on but what’ll happen when push comes to shove?

    Most of the genuine Catalan people I know ( real ones – not the ones who are called Jordi Gárcia Sánchez et al) can’t really be bothered with all this independence malarkey and would like to live here peacefully. The second and third generations have lost the plot and really don’t have a Danny La Rue(clue)and are far too radical. I’m talking about the Pere Tous’s and the Carme Ballester’s of this world.It really is a different story.

    I’m not against Catalonia’s independence, if it comes it comes but in the meantime there’s much more important work to be done like sorting out the high unemployment rate here, the schooling and education system, health care, corruption like Millet & friends and the Santa Coloma mob and many other things. They should not concentrate on setting up anymore consulates and donating needy money in the spreading of useless propaganda in South American countries. If Catalonia had a different mindset I could even be one of the first signing on the dotted line for independence :-)

  12. Comment by Iu on 15 December 2009:

    “These referendums are usually full of nationalists and extremists anyway” ?? Have you been to many referendums on Catalan independence in the last 20 years?
    No, I din’t vote because there was not a referendum in my municipality. I am now trying to participate to organise one for April.
    Who are “genuine Catalan people”? Is Montilla genuinely Catalan for you? I can not believe you have such a eugenic view of national identity. Catalan is any person who lives in Catalonia and identifies themself as Catalan. The same as in England. Please don’t fall into racialist definitions of national identity.

  13. Comment by Steve on 15 December 2009:

    Yawn……..No I haven’t been to many during the past 20 years as it’s not really “my bag”. So you couldn’t find time to go to another municipality to vote? Alrighty then, solidarity it is.

    Let me throw the question back: is Montilla genuinely Catalan for you? For a lot of people he doesn’t quite cut the mustard or should that be ali oli?

    “eugenic view” – if you say so squire, although you haven’t really contested anything, have you? If you read between the lines more maybe you’ll get the gist of what I was trying to say in my last post :-)

  14. Comment by Iu on 15 December 2009:

    It’s not a question of finding time to go to another municipality to vote: in European electoral systems(even in the UK) the electoral census is compiled at municipal level. If there wasn’t a ‘consulta’ in my municipality I would not have the right to go to another where I am not registered. If you are on the census in London, you can’t vote in Manchester. It’s the same here.
    Is Barack Obama genuinely USA-ian? If not, why not? Of course Montilla is totally Catalan, as is someone called Jordi Garcia Sanchez, or M’Baye Unuyu. We are in Europe in 2009: every citizen is free to decide his identity. At juridic level, if someone is a citizen of the Spanish State, and has residence in Catalunya, they are Catalan. They have the sam rights and responsabilities as all others. Your racial definition belongs to another time, thankfuly.

  15. Comment by Admin on 16 December 2009:

    Closing the post as it’s getting like a “disco rayado” – thanks for your comments everyone.