Catalan separatists win over half the votes in regional election for first time as far-Right gains ground

Protesters unveiled a giant Estelada flag in Barcelona ahead of the vote

Credit: REUTERS/Albert Gea

Catalan separatist parties have won more than 50 per cent of the vote in local elections for the first time, with the result from Sunday’s poll showing that the question of independence for Catalonia will continue to destabilise Spanish politics. 

Quim Torra, the region’s former president, described the fact that separatist parties had won 51 per cent of the vote as “historic”, even though turnout was down by around 25 percentage points on 2017 because of the Covid pandemic.

The election was called because Mr Torra was barred from public office last autumn after Spain’s courts found him guilty of disobedience for refusing to remove pro-independence symbols from public buildings during previous election campaigns.

Carles Puigdemont, who illegally declared Catalonia’s secession from Spain in 2017, said the result obliged Catalan parties to make a renewed push for independence. 

“Our duty is to try to execute this message explicitly because now we have the strength to do so”, Mr Puigdemont said from Belgium. 

Mr Puigdemont is in exile following the 2017 crisis, when his government held an unlawful referendum marked by police violence. Nine of his fellow independence leaders were jailed in the aftermath.

Although pro-independence forces extended their majority in Catalonia’s parliament, Spain’s ruling Socialist party won a narrow overall victory with 23 per cent of the vote.

The far-Right party Vox won representation in Catalonia’s parliament for the first time with 11 seats, ahead of the liberal Ciudadanos and conservative Popular Party.

The Catalan Republican Left (ERC) was the second most-voted party on 21 per cent and 33 seats, the same number as the Socialists.        

Salvador Illa, the Socialists’ lead candidate, said he would try to form a government in Catalonia.

But ERC candidate Pere Aragonès has ruled out any deal in Catalonia with the Socialists, even though his party often supports the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in the Spanish parliament.

Oriol Junqueras, the ERC’s jailed leader, has criticised the confrontational tactics of past Catalan governments, and Mr Aragonès is expected to attempt to broaden support for independence while pressing for the right to hold a legal self-determination referendum.

The ERC also demands that the Spanish government declare an amnesty for all politicians convicted or yet to be tried for their involvement in the 2017 crisis.

Podemos, the hard-Left junior partner in Spain’s coalition government, supports a pardon for Catalan politicians serving prison sentences. Podemos leader and Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias last week said that “Spain’s political and democratic situation cannot be fully normal when the leaders of the two parties that govern Catalonia are either in prison or in Brussels”.