I am not sure if the terminology is used differently in Spain (pre-translation of course) but that would be parsed as government by the US standards even with separation of power given the citation of specific laws by said government.

Granted here it is used as the omnibus term as opposed to its own division.

In parliamentary systems, the term "government" frequently refers to the current governing party or coalition.

In American English government is generally used as an overarching term and any judiciary would fit inside. We have three separate pieces: judicial, legislative, and executive (as well as shared-sovereignty with states which each have similar systems)

An American reading the title wouldn't be mislead (we're generally confused when other countries talk about forming new governments) but an English-fluent person from another parliamentary country might be misled.

How is a judicial authority not a part of the government?

In the US "government" means the whole Leviathan. In the UK the word for that is "state", while "government" means the ruling political party or parties and the officials they appoint.

Government is often understood to be the executive part, somewhat like 'administration', I don't know if there is a better word to use.

Not in the English speaking world at least. "Government" is an umbrella term which includes the legislature, executive, and judiciary.

In the UK "government" is generally taken to mean the executive who are also part of the legislature (parliament), but not judiciary. UK Judiciary separation appears to be far stronger than in the US viewed from here in the UK.

Ah, I didn't know that. Well both HN and Github are US sites, not UK, so the title is accurate in this context.

"English speaking world" is a tad wider than US specific - many of whom stick with a variation on the Westminster model. ;)

From the context of this subthread seems like the Spanish think of government as executive and legislature, with judiciary separate too.

https://www.gov.uk/government/how-government-works In the UK, the Prime Minister leads the government with the support of the Cabinet and ministers

No, that's a US English meaning that isn't widely used in other English speaking countries.

Or other non-English speaking parliamentary democracies for that matter.

I don't think the meaning currently given to cognates in other languages is relevant to the question of what a word means in modern English. In Spanish, bizarro means "brave", and recordar means "to recall from memory"; this does not provide any evidence that "bizarre" means "brave" in English, or that "recording" means "recalling from memory" in English. (Although, as it turns out, it once did.)

Seems like an American point of view to see it like that. The government does not control what the judges rule, that's what it means.

It's not so much an American "point of view" as it is their definition of the word. It appears that Spain defines the government as the executive branch, while the US (and several other English speaking countries) defines it as an umbrella covering the various branches (in the US; executive, judicial, legislative).

Distribution of power, yes. Separation of power, no.

As long as Spain's judiciary still sees it fit to hand out multi-year sentences to people peacefully following democratic principles, they seem very much an extension of the government and not an independent body.

> As long as Spain's judiciary still sees it fit to hand out multi-year sentences to people peacefully following democratic principles, they seem very much an extension of the government and not an independent body.

There's nothing in that paragraph that qualifies as an argument against the separation of powers. In fact, I'd say that's pretty much the opposite, considering that PSOE has been pressuring for lower sentences.

There are such arguments, like how the Constitutional Court judges are elected, but in the end it's up to the Judiciary branch to decide what to do about, and nobody can interfere.

> As long as Spain's judiciary still sees it fit to hand out multi-year sentences to people peacefully following democratic principles, they seem very much an extension of the government and not an independent body.

The judiciary follows the laws, which are written by the senate, which is elected by the spanish people.

So those "people peacefully following democratic principles" being arrested is the will of the Spanish people. If they don't like it, they should have voted better.

Its very easy to just say to vote better. But when there is as much corruption in the government as there is in Spain its not that easy. When all the parties are "crap", then who do you vote for? If they make it too hard to start a party that goes against the current government, to the point of shutting down the government for over a year, then you can easily see that its not that simple.

Sentencing is a judges prerogative, yes? So draconian sentencing is not so inevitable as that?

A judge is required to act according to the law. Not following because they disagree with it is not an option on any modern democracy.

Sentencing is a judges prerogative. There can be guidelines, but that's all they are.

The takedown notice was sent directly by the Spanish paramilitary, but it's supposed to have a court order attached to it, and that would be issued by an independent judiciary. So you're half-right - a bit weird, overall.

> Spanish paramilitary,

Guardia Civil is really a police force like the french Gendarmerie, seen it described as paramilitary is a bit odd, tbh.

Is this the same force active when people attempted to vote at polling stations?

All forces were active during that time. National Police, Guardia Civil and Mossos D'Esquadra (Catalan police). Probably Guardia Urbana (Local Police) too, but I'm not sure.

Yes. They weren't the only force active, but they were the one that made the news for outrageous misuse of violence.

Yes, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Catalan_independence_re...

Well I don't know about Guardia Civil, but Gendarmerie is a branch of the army and distinctly not of the police.