European elections | Electoral bodies open their doors with more than 5.7 million Catalans called to the polls

the Electoral colleges in Catalonia They opened this morning at nine o’clock European Parliament elections. more than 5.7 million Catalans They are being called to the polls in a single constituency election whose turnout is expected to be lower than in 2019. In less than a month, Catalans will vote again after Catalans on May 12.

This election day was marked, in part, by the theft of copper in Rodales, so Adef and Mossos de Escodra strengthened the surveillance apparatus of the railway network in preparation for the June 9 elections, according to the Spanish executive.

According to data from the Spanish delegation, nearly 10,000 agents were deployed this Sunday in Catalonia, half of them from Mossos d’Esquadra. Among the board members, auditors, dispatchers and security personnel, there will be about 42,000 people involved in the electoral system.

The far right, farmers and conflicts

After the Catalan elections left uncertain prospects for forming a government, parties during the European campaign addressed domestic policy issues, such as amnesty, referendum or individual financing. However, the potential increase in far-right power in Brussels, farmer unrest, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza also contributed to the election demonstrations.

Waiting to share

Requests to vote by mail in the European elections scheduled for June 9 have fallen by 27.5% in Catalonia compared to 2019, according to data from the Spanish government delegation in Barcelona. In a press conference on Friday, the representative of the Spanish government in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto, attributed this to the expected general decline in participation compared to the recent European elections, which coincided with the municipal elections. “It is very common if we look at historical series,” he noted.

Aside from the first elections held when Spain joined the European Union in 1987, the highest historical turnout in European elections in Catalonia was in 2019. These elections coincided with the municipal elections, as well as the two great independence leaders in Spain. At that time, Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras presented themselves to the Europeans as an attempt to bring the Catalan cause to Brussels. Nearly 3,440,000 people voted, or 60.93% of the population. Even the European participation rate was exceeded (50.66%).

On the other hand, in the Europeans of 2014 participation was 46.18%. The historical low dates back to 2009, when less than 37% of Catalan voters voted to elect a representative to the European Chamber, which is below the European average (43%), according to data provided by the European Chamber.

In the last 20 years, the participation rate of Spanish women in Catalonia has exceeded 62%. Among the Catalans, it reached its highest historical levels in 2015 (77%) and 2017 (79%), but it decreased in the latter and reached about 58% on May 12. The lowest level in 20 years was in 2006 with a participation rate of 56%.

Results from 11 p.m

The announcement of the results of the European elections in Catalonia will begin at 11 p.m. so as not to “affect the general vote” in the European Union, because schools in Italy will not close until then.

Thus, the Catalan electoral bodies will begin counting the votes when they close, at eight in the evening, but the results will not begin to be published before eleven. Therefore, the Spanish government expects that the data provided then will indeed be subject to a “high” level of scrutiny.

The first entry will be submitted at 2:30 pm and the second at 6:30 pm. The provisional results will be announced by government spokeswoman Pilar Alegría and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska in an appearance from 11 p.m.