A former chairman of Barcelona soccer club has launched himself on a political career as a populist Catalan separatist, whose backers include the region’s most famous porn star.
Former club chairman Joan Laporta hopes the popularity garnered by two Champions League wins and four Spanish league titles can be turned into votes when Catalans choose a new regional government on Nov. 28.
His aim is to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain and create a newly independent state.
“It is time to win our independence and administer our own resources,” the 48-year-old lawyer said as campaigning for the elections started last week.
Laporta’s latest signing is local porn star Maria Lapiedra, who has thrown her support behind his new Catalan Solidarity for Independence party and has begun to appear at campaign rallies. Her appearance has earned ridicule from both rival separatists and anti-separatists.
“I don’t understand all the fuss,” she said after appearing at an event last week. “All I have done is change parties.”
Some doubt Lapiedra’s real commitment to Catalan independence. Her other passion is Spain’s World Cup-winning national soccer team — which many separatists refused to support on the basis that they want Catalonia to have its own.
She once appeared, naked and painted in the colors of the Spanish flag, in a video urging people to cheer for the Spanish team.
Laporta is trying to ride a wave of popular Catalan anger about the Spanish constitutional court’s decision in June to water down a new charter of regional autonomy, which had been approved at referendum.
“The path of regional autonomy has now been closed down by the constitutional court,” he said.
The court’s decision to strike out parts of the charter provoked massive demonstrations across Catalonia in the summer and saw a surge in those who told opinion polls that they favored independence.
Some recent polls have shown that up to half of Catalans would now favor independence.
Polls also suggest that on Nov. 28 they will oust the socialist-led coalition that currently runs the region in favor of the moderate nationalist Convergence and Union coalition led by Artur Mas. Some polls show Laporta winning at least one seat for his new party.
He was the elected chairman of FC Barcelona until June, when his second term came to an end.
During his seven years as chairman, he encouraged supporters to see the club as a substitute for a Catalan national team — even though stars such as Leo Messi, Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o came from Argentina, Brazil and Cameroon.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in