Catalonia is braced for rounds of tense negotiations on forming a government after the victorious socialists fell well short of an absolute majority in Sunday’s election and the fugitive former regional president Carles Puigdemont vowed to try to forge a separatist minority administration despite a punishing night for the Catalan independence movement.
The snap election, which was called in March by the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, after opposition parties voted down the budget proposed by his minority government, proved costly for separatist parties, who lost their parliamentary majority.
The Catalan Socialist party (PSC) finished first, winning 42 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament and taking 28% of the vote.
The three biggest Catalan pro-independence parties – Aragonès’s pragmatic, moderate ERC, Puigdemont’s hardline, centre-right Together for Catalonia (Junts), and the far-left Popular Unity Candidacy – lost their majority, dropping from 74 seats at the last election to 59, with 39.4% of the vote.
Despite failing to get close to the 68 seats needed for an absolute majority, the PSC hailed its victory as the beginning of a new era in Catalan politics and society – and a definitive break with the turmoil triggered by Puigdemont’s unilateral and illegal push to secede in 2017.
“Catalonia has decided to open a new era,” the PSC’s leader, Salvador Illa, told supporters at his party headquarters on Sunday night. “Catalan voters have decided that the Socialist party will lead this new era, and it is my intention to become Catalonia’s next president.”
Illa, a close ally of Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, had campaigned on a promise to unite the region and improve its public services. Sánchez’s government hailed the PSC’s result as proof that its conciliatory approach to the so-called Catalan question – not least the introduction of a controversial amnesty for Puigdemont and others involved in the independence push – had paid off well.
“Salvador Illa’s triumph means the end of the independence process, thanks to the policy of harmony, dialogue and coexistence undertaken by the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez,” said a government source. “Catalans have backed that with their votes. In this election, Catalonia has decided to open a new stage.”
Puigdemont shrugged off Illa’s win and said he intended to attempt to put together a pro-independence minority government.
“We can put together a coherent majority – not an absolute one, but it would be bigger than Illa’s,” said Puigdemont, who has been campaigning in France while he waits for the amnesty to become law. “The main thing is to ensure Catalonia has a government that can work and that can stand up to Madrid. The second thing it to avoid a repeat election, [which] would be very bad news for Catalonia, for stability and for the people of Catalonia.”
Puigdemont acknowledged the independence movement’s poor showing, saying Sunday’s results demanded a “deep reflection” on the splits within the movement and on why so many voters had stayed at home.
The results led Aragonès to announce he was stepping down as an MP. He said the formation of the next Catalan government was a matter for the PSC and Junts.
“We’ve decided to respect the decision of the people and we have to move to become the opposition,” he said.
Sunday’s election is likely to lead to days and weeks of deal-making and horse-trading as both blocs attempt to forge a governing alliance to propose to regional MPs.
A left-leaning coalition of the PSC, the ERC and the leftwing Comuns Sumar alliance would deliver the 68 seats needed for a majority. But Aragonès, who became Catalan president almost exactly three years ago, has repeatedly ruled out any mooted ERC deals with the PSC on ideological grounds. Speaking on Monday, he once again said his party would not “facilitate the PSC’s investiture”.
A Puigdemont-led pro-independence coalition, which would probably exclude the new far-right Aliança Catalana party, which won two seats, would deliver 59 seats.
The situation is further complicated by the national political picture. Not only did Sánchez have to perform a U-turn and promise the ERC and Junts the amnesty in return for their support in helping him back into office after last summer’s inconclusive general election, he also continues to rely on their backing to get his minority government’s legislation through congress.
The conservative People’s party (PP), which has called the amnesty “the greatest affront to dignity, equality and the separation of powers seen in a western democracy”, came fourth in Sunday’s election, with its seat count rising from three to 15.
The PP’s leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, described the results as “extraordinary and well above our expectations”. The liberal Citizens party, which finished first in the 2017 Catalan regional election and which was once the great hope of the Spanish centre-right, had another death-knell result, losing all six of its seats.
