Spanish PM's party wins big, separatist movement loses in Catalonia
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Leader of the Catalan wing of Sanchez’s Socialists, Salvador Illa, calls the results a “new era” in the region, announcing to supporters his intention "to become Catalonia’s next president.”
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Pedro Sánchez and Carles Puigdemont, at the Palace of the Generalitat on March 15, 2016 (AFP)
The regional elections in Catalonia on Sunday were a big win for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party, which won the majority of votes, leading ahead and dealing a blow to the separatist Junts party of Carles Puigdemont.
Catalonia’s pro-separatist parties needed a combined 68 seats to form a coalition government for the first time in over a decade, since before “el procés” (the Catalan independence process) started.
The leader of the Catalan wing of Sánchez’s Socialists, Salvador Illa, called the results a “new era” in the region, announcing to supporters that “it is my intention to become Catalonia’s next president.”
But his party still fell short of a majority and needed to strike a deal with others in the chamber to form a government.
Read next: Spain's Sanchez confirms he will remain as PM, vows 'more strength'
After almost all votes were counted, the Socialists won 42 out of 135 seats in the Catalan parliament, while the party of Puidgemont, which in 2017 attempted to declare independence from Spain, garnered only 35 seats, followed by fellow separatists ERC with 20 seats.
Will Puidgemont stick to his pledge?
In a statement, Puidgemont said, “The candidacy that I led had a good result, we are the only pro-independence force to increase in votes and seats, and we assume the responsibility that entails,” noting, “But that is not enough to compensate the losses of the other separatists parties.”
Before the votes came in, Puidgemont vowed to leave the political scene if he was not elected regional president, declaring to Politico he had “a right to get some rest after these very difficult years.”
The decision to hold the election was made in March by Catalan President Pere Aragones, a member of the moderate pro-independence Catalan Republican Left party (ERC) after opposition parties rejected the budget proposed by his minority government.
Previously, the ERC had governed in coalition with the staunchly pro-independence Together for Catalonia (Junts) party, which Puigdemont leads. However, persistent disagreements led Junts to withdraw from the government in October 2022.
This election is being held six and a half years after Puigdemont ignited Spain's most significant political crisis in decades, by organizing a unilateral referendum on regional independence, followed by a declaration of independence.
In April, Sanchez also introduced an amnesty law to secure support from ERC and Junts, enabling his return to power after last summer's inconclusive general election. The amnesty law, benefiting Puigdemont among others, encompasses approximately 400 individuals involved in the independence referendum of November 2014 and the subsequent poll three years later.
The bill is in the Senate and is due to become law in the coming weeks, allowing the return of Puigdemont. But the measure has been adamantly opposed by the right and far-right.
