Hey… who cares. Does it affect us down in here in Andalucia? Well, it does show that nobody gives a damn about Garzon or the P.P. election scandal. Proving once and for all that Madrid is irrelevant for the “regions”.
Lenox is complaining about how we guiris can’t vote in regional or national elections. (Here. It’s worth a look). Of course, we can pay taxes. No problem paying taxes. Through different companies I pay around €300,000 a year in taxes and social security. I can’t vote on how it’s spent, but I can pay it. Or as a Phd student of politics at the Complutense University of Madrid once told me, “50% is better than nothing”.
Lessese… 8 million andaluzes. PSOE (in charge since Democracy, President-for-life M. Chaves ruling) got aprox 2,3 million votes in the last regional elections. PP 1,7 million. IU 230,000. (And they wonder why they aren’t taken seriously by the big 2).
Of course, nobody knows how many Brits are in Andalucia. INE says that there are 623,000 registered guiris in Andalucia, 112,000 being Brits. Many of us don’t bother actually registering in Spain, perferring the route that if a Pakistani followed in the UK would lead to his deportation and nasty letters to the Daily Mail.
The APCE estimates that there may be as many as 630,000 homes owned by British expats in Andalucia. Let’s imagine that each home has 2,2 people over 18 who could vote. That would mean>
630,000 * 2,2 voters= 1,386,000 potential voters who are Brits.
Plus the 112,000 Brits who actually bothered becoming legal.
TOTAL: 1,498,000 Brits in Andalucia.
Throw in a few Germans, French and the occasional Romanian, we could get rid of President for life Chaves!
And that’s why we can’t vote. Although we can pay as many taxes as we want.