Socialists poised to win power from separatists in Catalonia
Spain’s Socialist party was poised to win Sunday’s election in the north-eastern region of Catalonia as voters turned away from the separatist parties that have long held power.
With 96 per cent of the vote counted, PSC was on course to win 28 per cent of the vote and 42 seats in the 135-member Catalan parliament.
Salvador Illa, the candidate for the winning Catalan socialists (PSC), said he believed that Catalonia was “entering a new stage” after what he calls “10 lost years” of the so-called independence “process”, which has been consistently blocked by Spain.
The victory is a boost for Pedro Sánchez, Spanish prime minister and head of PSC, whose government has attempted to defuse tension in Catalonia by pardoning nine jailed separatist leaders and passing an amnesty law that will mean no one else will face punishment for their involvement in the referendum of 2017.
That year saw Catalonia issue a short-lived independence declaration. The movement fizzled out after the Spanish government imposed direct rule over the autonomous region and the nine leaders were handed lengthy jail sentences. Oriol Junqueras, Catalonia’s deputy government head at the time, received the longest of 13 years for sedition. They were all pardoned in 2021.
Mr Illa’s surge in the vote should bode well for Mr Sánchez and the socialists before a European parliament election next month.
But it is not clear whether Mr Illa, who was Spain’s health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, will become president of Catalonia.
He would still need the support of other parties to gain a majority. The negotiations in Catalonia will be especially delicate for Mr Sánchez, whose national government has relied on support from Catalan separatists in the Spanish parliament.
More than 5.7 million voters in Catalonia were eligible to participate in the election on Sunday.
The PSC’s result denied a victorious return to Catalonia for Carles Puigdemont, the leader of separatist party Junts who fled Catalonia in 2017 after declaring secession from Spain.
Junts, which formed in 2017, was set to finish second with around 21 per cent of the vote after Mr Puigdemont had led his campaign on French soil to avoid being arrested.
It was a bad night, too, for the current president of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, whose Left-wing separatist ERC party was on course to win just 14 per cent and 20 seats, down from 21 per cent and 33 seats in the previous regional ballot, held in 2021.
