Projections see separatists as losers in Catalan election
According to projections from votes counted, the separatist parties have lost their parliamentary majority in the parliamentary elections in the Spanish region of Catalonia.
After counting around 90% of the votes, the parties only won 62 of parliament's 135 seats, according to the projections.
The big winner of Sunday's election was the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC), the regional offshoot of the national Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which gained nine seats and was by far the strongest force in parliament.
Forecasts based on exit polls, which were published immediately after the polling stations closed, had predicted that the separatists would win a majority.
According to the projections by Spanish TV station RTVE, the Socialists with their leading candidate Salvador Illa were able to improve their lead from 33 seats to 41.
The separatist former regional leader Carles Puigdemont and his Together for Catalonia (Junts) party won 36 seats, four more than in the previous election in 2021, while the previous, also separatist regional president Pere Aragonès and his Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party dropped from 33 seats to just 20.
Spain's largest opposition party, the conservative People's Party (PP), which traditionally has a difficult time in Catalonia, improved significantly by 11 seats to 14, while the right-wing populist Vox maintained its 11 seats.
The left-wing alternative alliance Commons Unite (Comuns-Sumar), which governs together with the Socialists in Madrid, won six seats, or two fewer than last time, the left-wing separatist Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) dropped to four seats - a loss of five - and the new, far-right separatist Catalan Alliance (Aliança Catalana) won two seats in the parliament in Barcelona.
