Elections in Catalonia: five key issues about this region of Spain

Catalonia celebrates on Sunday regional elections national in scope. These are five key questions about this rich northeast region of Spainwhich has been governed for almost ten years by the independentists and is endowed with extensive autonomy.

secession attempt

Catalonia made the front pages of the international media when the regional government of Carles Puigdemont organized a self-determination referendum on October 1, 2017, flouting the prohibition of justice.

Before the end of that month, the regional Parliament unilaterally declared the independence of Catalonia, prompting the Spanish government to immediately suspend its autonomy and dismiss its executive.

The main separatist leaders were imprisoned or fled abroad to evade justice, like Puigdemont. This crisis, one of the worst since Spain returned to democracy almost half a century ago, continues to weigh on national politics.

Coming to power in mid-2018, the socialist Pedro Sánchez managed to be re-elected last November thanks to the support of the two main Catalan independence parties.

In exchange, they obtained an amnesty law for the separatists involved in the events of 2017. The text, which will be definitively adopted in the coming weeks, should allow Puigdemont to return to Catalonia after almost seven years abroad.

The independentists to power

At the beginning of the 2010s, in the midst of the financial crisis, the then regional president, the nationalist and conservative Artur Mas, took a turn towards independence, a sentiment that was growing among the population.

Puigdemont, a staunch separatist from the same party, replaced him in early 2016 at the head of the region, which he led until the failed secession of 2017.

Since then, the separatists have managed to maintain a majority in the Catalan Parliament.

In the last 2021 elections they won 74 seats out of 135. However, their differences led to Puigdemont’s party, Together for Catalonia, leaving the government in October 2022, leaving only the Republican Left of Catalonia in power.

The independence camp, which ranges from the extreme left to the center-right, has seen the emergence in recent months of a new far-right formation, the Catalan Alliance, which according to surveys could achieve a 3% of the votes this Sunday.

Great autonomy

In a very decentralized Spain, Catalonia, with about 8 million inhabitants, is one of the regions with the highest degree of autonomy. It manages, like the others, health and education, but it also has its own police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, and recently received control of regional rail transport.

As part of the agreement to re-elect Pedro Sánchez, the socialists promised “measures that allow financial autonomy” de Catalonia, while Puigdemont’s party asks for a transfer of the management of the 100% of taxes paid in the region.

Economic motor

Catalonia is the second richest region in Spain and represents 19% of the national GDP, behind Madrid (19.4%), who achieved leadership after the 2017 secession attempt.

The region, which is home to the headquarters of the textile company Mango, the cosmetics company Puig, the pharmaceutical company Grifols and the telecommunications company Cellnex, is, by far, the first in Spain in terms of exports, with a 26.1% of the national total.

Industrial lung of the country, its unemployment rate of 10.4% is significantly lower than the national average, which is located at 12.3%.

Language

Catalan is the official language of the region, along with Spanish. Teaching is mainly given in that language, which is also the usual language in the administration. According to data published last year by the regional government, the 86.8% of the region’s inhabitants understand Catalan well, the mother tongue of the 29.2% from them.

Fearing a decline in its use, the separatists defend it fiercely and last year achieved the possibility of using Catalan in the Spanish Parliament.

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