A copper theft slows down trains in Catalonia on voting day. Independentists are asking to delay the closing of the polls

Spanish TV channels went as far as to talk about sabotage, citing sources from the Ministry of Transport in support of the hypothesis. The Catalan police, however, treated it as ordinary administration. The fact is that the theft of copper which caused serious problems for the circulation of Catalan regional trains has sown chaos but also suspicions over the elections in […]

Spanish TV channels went as far as to talk about sabotage, citing sources from the Ministry of Transport in support of the hypothesis. The Catalan police, however, treated it as ordinary administration. The fact is that the theft of copper which caused serious problems to circulation of regional trains Catalans has sown chaos but also suspicions over the elections in Catalonia. For which the pro-independence political forces are asking for a delayed closing of the polls due to the accident, which particularly affected the circulation of trains to and from Barcelona and which is among the most serious recorded in recent years, even if it is not the first of its kind.

They were the Catalan independence parties Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and Junts to ask the electoral commissions to postpone the closing of the polls in consideration of the problem with train circulation. In particular, ERC asked the provincial commissions of Barcelona and Tarragona to extend voting operations by one hour, from 8pm to 9pm, in the polling stations near the railway stations affected by the service cuts. Junts instead requested the postponement of the closing of polling stations throughout the territory “for as long as necessary to resolve the fault”, but no later than 11.59pm.

In any case, the first data on theturnout they indicated an increase in participation compared to the last electoral round in 2021 and the Barcelona constituency is the one that recorded the greatest increase. Illustrating the data, the spokesperson of the Catalan government Patricia Plajarecalled that in 2021 the vote was taken while the Covid-19 pandemic was underway.

“I hope it is the last day of exile for many people who are abroad, who have spent many years outside and it is time for them to return home,” said the Junts candidate to the Catalan Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, speaking from the Château de Laroque-des-Albères in France. The pro-independence leader, who has not voted since December 2017, said that the vote is a “very important” day and expressed the hope that “everything will take place normally and that everyone will be able to enjoy the day”. Puigdemont conducted the entire electoral campaign from France, in the region that independence supporters identify as northern Catalonia.

“We have in our hands to decide the future of the country, which is why we expect avery high participation and I urge citizens to vote with all their energy, strength and enthusiasm”, the outgoing president of the Catalan Generalitat told reporters, Aragon pearsof the Catalanist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, after voting at the Joan Coromines Institute in Barcelona.

ERC is seen in the polls as the third political force, behind Junts per Catalunya and more than ten points behind the socialists of the PSC, but it could hold the keys to the next alliances between the parties that will be necessary to ensure the governability in the region. Aragones referred to “yet another accident” which has caused chaos in the rail transport network in Barcelona and the metropolitan area, attributing it to “years of lack of investment in the network” of regional rail transport.