Separatists lose majority in Catalonia

2024-05-13 09:48:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sáchez's Socialists claimed victory in Catalan regional elections on Sunday, May 12, in which Carles Puigdemont and other separatists lost their majority after ten years in power.

Sunday's vote was held six years after Puigdemont led a failed independence bid that sparked one of Spain's worst political crises in decades.

Led by Salvador Illa - who has been Spain's health minister during the coronavirus pandemic - the Catalan Socialist party won 42 of the 135 seats in the regional Parliament, or nine more seats than in the primary elections held in 2021.

Describing the result as historic, Sanchez wrote on X - formerly known as Twitter - that these election results will mark the start of "a new era in Catalonia".

"A new era for all Catalans, regardless of what they think," Illa told his supporters during a speech after the victory.

Sunday's election results are a major victory for Sanchez, who has been keen to show that his policies have worked to reduce tensions fueled by the Catalan crisis, and to reduce pro-independence sentiment in the region's north-east. the state where 8 million people live.

Since becoming prime minister in 2018, a few months after the separatists' failed attempt, Sanchez has attempted to "heal the wounds" caused by the unprecedented political crisis. In 2021 he pardoned separatists convicted of trying for independence, and is currently pushing a bill aimed at amnestying the separatists in exchange for them supporting him for another term as head of the Spanish executive.

By winning more than 200,000 votes, the Socialists managed to prevent pro-independence parties from gaining the majority needed to take power in the region, which they have led for the past decade.

The latest results showed Puigdemont's hardline party JxCat, the moderate ERC party led by outgoing Catalan leader Pere Aragones and the smaller left-wing party CUP won 59 seats. In the previous elections, they had won 74 seats in the regional Parliament.

Even counting the two seats won by the ultra-nationalist Catalan Alliance, the separatists fall short of the 68 seats required to form a majority.

The JxCat party has won 35 seats – more than in the last election – the ERC has won 20 – from 13 before – while the CUP has won four, less than last time when it won nine seats in Parliament.

Puigdemont, 61, fled Spain to avoid prosecution after the failed independence bid. He has conducted the election campaign from the south of France.

Although he will be allowed to return to Spain once the amnesty bill becomes law, he had hoped a victory in Sunday's election would pave the way for a triumphant return.

He has promised to leave politics if he does not win the elections.

Despite the victory, Illa must reach an alliance to have a majority of the required 68 seats.

The socialists also won the majority of votes in the 2021 elections, but the separatists managed to create a governing coalition.

Analysts said the most likely option is for the Socialists to form a coalition with the radical left Comuns Sumar, which won six seats, and the ERC, which has 20 seats. Together, they would have a fixed 68 seats, which is required to create a majority.

In Sunday's elections, the right-wing parties have increased. The People's Party won 15 seats, from the three it had in the primary elections, while the far-right party, Vox, won 11 seats, as many as it had in the previous elections.

Both of these parties have opposed the pro-independence movement and also oppose Sanchez's amnesty bill, which will become law within weeks and which would allow Puigdemont's return./ REL