Puigdemont pushes for government of pro-independence parties
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Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan separatist leader, has said he will seek to form a government in the region, despite Sunday’s election failing to give a majority to independence parties.
Mr Puigdemont, an MEP who campaigned for his Junts party on French soil to avoid being arrested for leading an unlawful attempt to launch an independent Catalonia in 2017, said he would go to the regional parliament in Barcelona to present himself as a candidate for president.
“I am not going to put on a show,” Mr Puigdemont said. “There are genuine options to obtain enough votes,” he added.
Junts was second in Sunday’s election, with 35 seats in the 135-member Catalan parliament. The Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) came first with 42, while ERC, another separatist party, came third with 20 seats.
It is the first time since 1984 that Catalan nationalist parties do not form a majority in the parliament.
Analysts say the Socialists could ally with the radical-Left Comuns Sumar, which won six seats, and moderate independence party ERC, which won 20, to govern.
The most logical pathway to power would require ERC to support Socialist leader Salvador Illa in his bid to forge a government that would abandon the separatists’ push for independence.
However, Pere Aragonés, ERC’s leader and Catalonia’s outgoing president, said he wanted to go into opposition, potentially ruling out governing with either the Socialists or Junts.
But there remains a possibility the party could abstain and allow the Socialists to govern in minority.
Mr Puigdemont insisted that he had a stronger claim than Mr Illa to preside over the region’s next government, apparently taking for granted that ERC would rally to his call for “unity” among pro-independence forces.
Mr Illa has indicated that he wishes to open a “new era” as Catalonia’s president.
Spain’s government relies on ERC and Junts
Spain’s government, led by socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez, Mr Illa’s political boss, relies on the support of both ERC and Junts in the national parliament.
Mr Puigdemont warned the Socialists that an attempt to make Mr Illa president of Catalonia by seeking the support of the conservative People’s Party, which quintupled its seats in Catalonia to 15, would lead Junts to withdraw its support for Mr Sánchez.
This year Mr Sánchez’s government agreed to pass an amnesty law that will allow Mr Puigdemont to avoid going on trial in Spain on charges relating to 2017’s secession attempt. Representatives of the Socialist Party and Junts are engaged in talks being held in Switzerland on the future of Catalonia, although Mr Sánchez has publicly ruled out allowing a referendum on independence.
