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The leading party in Navarra is UPN (Union of the Navarran People), originally (around 1990 I believe) a splinter group of PP but so much more successful that it is again the PP's branch in Navarra but now under the name UPN.
Just today, at the same time as reassuring Navarra that they won't be "a token of exchange" in the peace process, Zapatero stressed that the PSOE will seek to unseat UPN from the regional government in 2007, for which they would need a [government, not electoral] coalition with both Na-Bai and the Navarran United Left (Communist). A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
I now follow the resulting complications!
It's a different issue [from Navarra being at stake in the peace process] that the socialist atempt to unseat UPN from the [regional] presidency at the next [Navarran] Autonomous [Community elections]. ... but this [agreement against the nationalist demands] does not mean that they [the Government] will attend to the demands of [Navarran president] Sanz: a constitutional change is not foreseen and, even less, will they give up on ruling Navarra if possible.
... but this [agreement against the nationalist demands] does not mean that they [the Government] will attend to the demands of [Navarran president] Sanz: a constitutional change is not foreseen and, even less, will they give up on ruling Navarra if possible.
Sanz has demanded that the Spanish Constitution be reformed (there is a provision allowing Navarra to change its legal status via popular referendum, which Sanz is insinuating could be used to annex Navarra to the Basque country). I expect UPN to claim that Zapatero's refusal to undertake this reform is evidence of nefarious intent. A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
ManfromMiddletown is fond of mentioning the fact that Navarra retained self-government until the 18th century, and that the fueros (royal charter) were allowed to stand by Franco. This is because Navarra was a hotbed of Carlism (Traditionalist Royalist Catholic nationalism) and sided with Franco during the Civil War (unlike Biscay and Guipuzcoa).
Hey now ;) you get your kicks from prime numbers, for me its the protoconstutionalism on fueros that gets me excited. The UPN is a seperate party from the PP in the same way the the CSU is to the CDU in Germany. Navarra is extremely unique in the extent to which it retained political autonomy even while Franco was in power. The thing about Navarra is that in the mountains in the north it's basically an extension of th Basque country, being heavily Basque, and basque nationalist voters.
In Pamplona, there's more since of Navarra(Nafarroa) as an identity, while the Ribera, the souther part of the province near the Ebro is heavily Spanish and is similiar to La Rioja. Navarra is a distinct identity seperate from the Basque identity, althought Pamplona has been a hotbed for Batasuna and ETA as the Basque country proper got too hot to handle. I don't think you can understand the seriously militaristic overtones that lie just below the surface in Navarra, until you been there for a while. Security is much, much tighter around government buildings in Pamplona than in Madrid or even San Sebastian. The always have armored vehicles outside the regional parliament, or at least did when I was there. 24 hour guard, with Kalashnikovs no less.
Distinctly unsettling. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
The UPN is a seperate party from the PP in the same way the the CSU is to the CDU in Germany.
I see the Catalan Socialists (PSC) moving ina similar direction with respect to the PSOE [which is already a "federal" party, by the way]. In fact, the Catalan senators were not elected for PSC/PSOE but for Entesa Catalana de Progrès (Catalan Progressive Entente) which includes ERC and IC/Verts, the same parties making up the Catalan government right now.
The thing about Navarra is that in the mountains in the north it's basically an extension of th Basque country, being heavily Basque, and basque nationalist voters.
YOu know more than I do about Navarra since you actually lived there [right?], so maybe you should be the one to write the Navarran diary. Or maybe we should keep the current successful format where I write the diary to inform myself and you poke holes in it desde la barrera. A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
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