In a move which has angered some sectors of the non-Spanish EU residents in Spain, the Spanish government has apparantly decided that registered foreign residents from EU member states will not be allowed to vote in the referendum to be held on the new European Union Constitution next month.
Unlike in elections to the European parliament where member states are required to extend the right to vote to registered residents from other EU countries, in this referendum each EU government can to determine who is allowed to participate and who not. And the Spanish government, for some reason known only to itself, has decided that only Spaniards will have the right to vote in a referendum which is expected to attract very little debate and a very poor turnout.
Most non-Spanish EU residents who are used to registering and voting in local and European elections in Spain expected to vote in the referendum and according to an article in Expatica it only became apparant that were not going to have the right to vote this time when some expats went to their local town hall to ask why they still hadn’t received their voting papers.
According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, non-Spanish EU nationals can vote in their home countries, but in theory this might not be the case since each individual country will decide whether or not provision will be made for nationals living abroad to participate in the referendum.
This means that paradoxically one of the few groups of people most likely to be quite interested in expressing their opinion on the new European Union constitution, because of how it will directly affect their rights as nationals of one EU state and residents in another, may actually not be able to vote at all.
If they don’t then who does ? and will a yes vote lose Spain it bull fights under the new constitution ?
SPANISH REGULATION ON THE RIGHT TO VOTE AT REFERENDUMS:
SPANISH CONSTITUTION Section 13
2. Only Spaniards shall have the rights recognized in section 23, except in cases which may be established by treaty or by law concerning the right to vote and the right to be elected in municipal elections, and subject to the principle of reciprocity. (This text includes the first constitutional reform adopted on 27/08/1992; it just added the words «and the right to be elected» to the paragraph).
SPANISH CONSTITUTION Section 23
1. Citizens have the right to participate in public affairs, directly or through representatives freely elected in periodic elections by universal suffrage.
Artículos 2 y 3 de la Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General.
Artículo 11.1 de la Ley Orgánica 2/1980, de 18 de enero, sobre regulación de las distintas modalidades de referéndum
The problem is not limited to Spain, but is much greater. I am a Danish citizen living in the Netherlands and I am not allowed to vote neither here nor in Denmark. I cant vote for any member of a national parliament, and I cant vote in the EU constitution referendum either, or national referendums for that matter. Even the latest EU parliament referendum I missed because I declined to vote in the Netherlands but failed to be put on the voting lists in Denmark in time. Apart from the local elections, I am in fact without the basic democratic rights. When I called my embassy to ask if it could really be true, they say I should have stayed home if I wanted to vote. I am outraged that we lose your basic democratic rights just because we move a few hundred kilometres away from our birthplace. I can understand that the Netherlands does not want me to vote here as a newcomer, but surely there ought to be a right for every individual to take part in our democracy, if not in their residence country then at least in their country of origin.
Also, I think we must realise the issue is even broader and the problem applies to all immigrants everywhere, regardless of country of origin.