Saturday, May 26, 2007

And they say all parties are the same...

Well, maybe. Apparently in April (see El Mundo), the Socialist Party of the Canary Islands (PSC-PSOE) got caught copying the platform of the party Ciutadans (C) of Catalonia. Yes, different parties, from different parts of the country, with pretty much the same platform. It's not just "pretty much the same"... it is the same:

From "125 measures for the first year of a Socialist government: for change in the Canaries" [PDF] (my translation):

We reaffirm the right of the citizens of the Canaries to refer to the Defensor del Pueblo, who is also defender of Canarians; to defend their rights and freedoms when those are threatened by public powers, whether they be autonomic, local or national.

From "100 proposals to improve Catalonia" [PDF] (again, my translation):

We reclaim the right of the citizens of Catalonia to refer to the Defensor del Pueblo, who is also defender of Catalans; to defend their rights and freedoms when those are threatened by public powers, whether they be autonomic, local or national.

The second is the original; the first is the copy. (What, you couldn't tell?). Now, no more comments on how all those politicians are identical!!

This is part of the lead-up to tomorrow's Spanish municipal and autonomic elections--more on those as the results come in.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, these are basically the same party, in effect, no? I mean, the national PSOE does not compete in these elections, does it? They are regional wings of the Spanish socialists. That they would have the same platform on items that are not specifically of local interest makes sense.

Alex said...

MSS--

No... the Socialist Party of the Canaries is part of PSOE, yes. But the party they copied, Ciutadans, is a new party that just broke into the Parliament of Catalonia in the latest election.

Note also that many of the elements that were copied also removed specific regional references (to laws passed by the tripartite government in Catalonia, media stations in Catalonia, etc.) There was even a specific amount (2.7m euros) that Ciutadans said they would give to a regional pension fund--the PSC copied the amount (2.7m euros appears in their platform too!). The newspaper article I link to has another example or two.

Anyway, the upshot was that one of the top PSC officials in the Canaries had to resign... big scandal.