Catalan elections give signs of reconciliation with Spain

Catalonia held regional elections on Sunday whose result would have consequences on the Spanish national politics. The vote would offer an indicator of both the strength of the separatist movement in Spain’s wealthy northeastern region and the measures of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez.

More than 5.7 million people could vote to elect legislators for the regional parliament, located in Barcelona.

Separatists have controlled the regional government for more than a decade. But polls and national elections in July showed that support for independence has waned since former regional president Carles Puigdemont led an illegal and futile secession attempt in 2017.

Puigdemont is now a fugitive from Spanish justice, having fled the country days after his failed secession attempt. But that has not prevented him from running in these elections and campaigning from the south of France. He has said that he will return to Spain when newly elected Catalan parliamentarians meet to elect a regional president after the elections.

By then, Puigdemont hopes to have been exonerated from any legal problems once the Spanish Congress gives final approval to a controversial amnesty for him and hundreds of other separatists.

The amnesty is part of Sánchez’s great efforts to reduce tension in Catalonia and which also include the pardon of prominent independentists in prison. If voters do not back those initiatives with support for his Socialist Party, it would be a blow to the president, who leads a minority coalition government in Madrid.

The amnesty is part of Sánchez’s great efforts to reduce tension in Catalonia and which also include the pardon of prominent independentists in prison. If voters do not back those initiatives with support for his Socialist Party, it would be a blow to the president, who leads a minority coalition government in Madrid.

The elections will also pose a battle within the independence camp between Puigdemont’s conservative party Junts (Together) and Aragonès’ Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia).

A new far-right independence party called Aliança Catalana (Catalan Alliance), which criticizes both irregular immigration and the Spanish state, aims to gain parliamentary representation.

A total of nine parties are running and none are expected to come close to the number of votes necessary to obtain the absolute majority of 68 seats in the autonomous chamber, so alliance negotiations will be essential.

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