"Herd of sheep takes over streets in Spain’s capital" Associated Press November 03, 2014
MADRID — Shepherds guided a flock of 2,000 sheep through Madrid’s streets Sunday in defense of ancient grazing, droving, and migration rights that are increasingly threatened by urban sprawl and modern agricultural practices.
Tourists and city-dwellers were surprised to see the capital’s traffic cut to permit the bleating, bell-clanking parade to pass the city’s most emblematic locations.
Shepherds halted at the old town hall so the chief herdsman could hand authorities 25 maravedies — copper coins first minted in the 11th century — as payment for the crossing.
They then continued past Puerta del Sol — Madrid’s equivalent of New York’s Times Square — and past the Bank of Spain headquarters on their way to Retiro Park.
Children shrieked with joy as the sheep went from a trot to a gallop past a hamburger restaurant and luxury jewelry store in the city’s toniest downtown quarter.
Since medieval times, shepherds have had the right to use droving paths crisscrossing a landscape that was once a checkerboard of woodland and grazing space.
Some herding routes have been used annually for more than 800 years, and Madrid sprawls across one that dates to 1372. Madrid became an important urban center when King Philip II chose it as the capital of his vast empire in 1561.
The herd was accompanied by musicians and dancers dressed in regional costumes.
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"Catalonia to press independence straw poll" by Raphael Minder | New York Times November 05, 2014
MADRID — The regional government of Catalonia said Tuesday it would go ahead with a straw poll on independence, scheduled for this Sunday, in seeming defiance of an order from Spain’s constitutional court to suspend the ballot.
The court’s ruling, which came earlier in the day, and the response from the Catalan government were the latest episodes in a two-year standoff between Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Artur Mas, the Catalan leader, over the status of the region, Spain’s economic powerhouse.
The tensions hit a peak in September when Mas signed a decree approving the Nov. 9 vote on whether to break from Spain, despite efforts by the central government to block it.
Mas remains under pressure within Catalonia to keep the breakaway plans on track, but he has also said he would not hold a vote if it were deemed illegal and would provoke a constitutional crisis for Spain.
As that outcome appeared unavoidable, Mas reduced the ballot’s status to an informal poll. Now, given Tuesday’s order by the constitutional court, Mas may be forced to diminish the status of the vote even further by having the balloting organized through civic groups rather than the government.
The Catalan government did not say Tuesday how such a vote could be legally arranged but insisted that it would challenge the central government before the Spanish Supreme Court on the grounds that it had violated the rights of Catalans to decide their own future.
Mas contends that his position has been made untenable by Rajoy’s refusal to discuss the status of Catalonia, even after Scotland rejected independence from Britain in a referendum in September approved by the government of Prime Minister David Cameron.
Rajoy, on the other hand, maintains that there can be no dialogue with Catalonia until Mas and other secessionist politicians drop plans to hold an independence vote that violates the sovereignty guarantees included in Spain’s constitution.
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Also see: Majority of voters in non-binding Catalan poll favor independence
Related: Spanish Secessionists Split
