Separatist parties in Catalonia have boosted their parliamentary majority in the regional elections, held amid a third wave of coronavirus. [ Ссылка ] #eudebates #justice #Puigdemont #Spain #elections #Catalans #Catalonia
The pro-union Socialist Party, led by former health minister Salvador Illa, won the most votes to claim a narrow victory, but will struggle to form a government.
With 99% of the votes counted, the three main parties working toward an independence from Spain increased their number of seats in the 135-seat regional parliament to 74. In 2017 they won 70.
The Socialist party of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez looked set to take 33 seats with 625,000 votes, but would require help from other parties - including pro-independence ones - to form a majority.
The pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) was set for 33 seats as well, with 580,000 votes. The centre-right Together for Catalonia (JxC), won 32 seats. The far-left, pro-secession CUP party won nine seats.
The separatist parties therefore once again have the seats to form a majority in the Parliament, and negotiations over how that government will come together are expected to be held over the next few days.
The result potentially boosts pro-independence power in Catalonia, a region that saw an illegal referendum on independence held in 2017, sparking a national crisis.
The far-right Vox party entered the Catalan parliament for the first time with 11 seats, continuing its surge across Spain in recent years.
Aside from the arithmetic, the election will be remembered for being held in the midst of a third wave of coronavirus.
Stringent safety measures were put in place, with polling workers in protective gear and voter use of face masks and hand disinfectant mandatory.
Catalonia election: pro-independence parties increase majority
Catalan Socialist party finishes first as secessionists win more than half the vote on turnout of only 53%
Catalan pro-independence parties have increased their parliamentary majority following a regional election in which the unionist Socialists took the largest share of the vote and the far-right Vox party outperformed its conservative rivals to win its first seats in the northeastern Spanish region.
Sunday’s election was overshadowed by the Covid pandemic and dominated by the continuing debate over independence that has shaped and divided Catalan politics for the past decade.
For the first time, pro-independence parties took more than half the votes, winning 51% – up from 47.5% in the last regional election in December 2017. Between them, they now hold 74 of the 135 seats in the Catalan parliament, an increase of four seats.
The Catalan Socialist party (PSC) finished first, winning 33 seats – up from 17 last time – and 23% of the vote. It was followed by the pro-independence Catalan Republican Left (ERC), which took 33 seats and 21.3% of the vote, and the centre-right, pro-independence Together for Catalonia party, which came third with 32 seats and 20% of the vote.
Vox, which is the third biggest party in the national parliament, won 11 seats, breaking into the Catalan parliament for the first time and taking more seats than its rivals in the conservative People’s party (PP) and the centre-right Citizens party combined. The election was a humiliating event for both parties: Citizens, which finished first in 2017 with 36 seats, dropped to just six, while the PP – for decades the hegemonic party of the Spanish right – slumped from four seats to three.
En Comú Podem, the coalition that includes the regional branch of the far-left anti-austerity Unidas Podemos, retained its eight seats, and the pro-independence anti-capitalist Popular Unity Candidacy won nine.
The poll was triggered last September after the region’s separatist president, Quim Torra, was banned from office for displaying pro-independence symbols on public buildings during the 2019 general election campaign.
With the election over, attention will now focus on the formation of the new regional government.
Torra hailed the results as a “resounding pro-independence victory”, while Laura Borrás, the Together for Catalonia candidate, said the fact that pro-independence parties had won more than 50% of the vote for the first time “has to have consequences for both the government and the parliament”.
But Salvador Illa, the former Spanish health minister who ran as the PSC candidate, said he would seek to be invested as regional president, adding: “The meaning of my victory is very clear – it’s time to turn the page.”
[ Ссылка ] #eudebates
