DHAKA: Pro-independence parties in Catalonia won an absolute majority in regional elections on Thursday (December 21) in a blow to Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, reports Financial Times.

the, that threatens to escalate the already acute tensions between Barcelona and Madrid.

The three separatist parties together won 70 seats in the 135-seat assembly, less than they collectively won in the last election in 2015 but crucially just ahead of the 68-seat threshold required to form a government.

The separatists once again failed to win the majority of the popular vote and the largest single party was the anti-independence Ciudadanos party, leading many analysts to argue that there was no mandate for a renewed push for independence.

Nevertheless, the victory for the three pro-independence parties will only add to tensions between Madrid and Barcelona, making compromise between the two sides less likely and the crisis seem more intractable than ever. 

“The Spanish state has been defeated,” Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan leader, said from Brussels where he has been in self-imposed exile after the failed independence push in October. “Mariano Rajoy has received a slap in the face from Catalonia.”

Many in the anti-independence camp pointed out that the results showed a Catalonia that was split on the issue of independence. The pro-independence parties won 48 per cent of the popular vote.

The result was a personal victory for Puigdemont, whose Junts per Catalunya party became the largest in the pro-independence bloc. Previous polls had suggested it would struggle against ERC.

“As you see, we are the comeback kids,” Joan Maria Pique, Puigdemont’s spokesman said.

Tensions in the region have been running exceptionally high after the previous Catalan government launched a push for independence in October, convening an illegal referendum and then making a unilateral declaration of independence. 

BDST: 1329 HRS, DEC 22, 2017
SI