{"id":3100,"date":"2024-05-14T11:43:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T11:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/spains-socialists-hail-new-era-in-catalonia-as-separatist-support-dims-in-elections\/"},"modified":"2024-05-14T11:43:53","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T11:43:53","slug":"spains-socialists-hail-new-era-in-catalonia-as-separatist-support-dims-in-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/spains-socialists-hail-new-era-in-catalonia-as-separatist-support-dims-in-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s Socialists hail \u2018new era\u2019 in Catalonia as separatist support dims in elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barcelona, Spain \u2014 <\/strong>Spain\u2019s Socialists won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday\u2019s Catalan elections, dealing a serious blow to more than a decade of separatist governance and the independence dreams still nursed by some in the wealthy northeastern region. <\/p>\n

The Socialists, led locally by Salvador Illa, had 42 seats in the 135-seat chamber with more than 99% of the vote counted, while hardline separatist party Junts was in second place with 35 seats, and the incumbent more moderate separatist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) had 20 seats. <\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s largest opposition party, the conservative People\u2019s Party, also had a good night, seeing the biggest increase since the last vote in 2021 from three seats to 15 on Sunday. Turnout for the vote was notably low at 58%. <\/p>\n

The result looks to be an existential threat for separatist governance in Catalonia which led a 2017 illegal independence referendum and declaration of independence that caused Spain\u2019s worst institutional crisis in more than 30 years but whose movement has lost energy and unity more recently. <\/p>\n

It also represents a vindication of Spain\u2019s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez\u2019s controversial bid to normalize <\/strong>relations with restive Catalonia, including issuing pardons for convictions over the independence drive and, more recently, a controversial amnesty including others still facing prosecution. <\/p>\n

Speaking as the voting count concluded, Illa hailed a \u201cnew era\u201d for the region. However, with no party holding a clear majority and deep ideological divisions between them, there remains the risk the vote will have to be repeated. <\/p>\n

The separatist parties combined of the ERC, Junts, far-left CUP and far-right Alianca Catalana, do not have the required 68 seats to be able to form a coalition government. <\/p>\n

Illa\u2019s Socialists will also need to forge an agreement – most likely with the ERC – but separatist parties until now have rejected any suggestion of helping the national ruling party govern in Catalonia. <\/p>\n

Illa might instead attempt to form an unorthodox alliance with not only far-left Sumar, its coalition partner in national government, but also the conservative People\u2019s Party and far-right Vox, with whom the socialists have long said they would not negotiate. <\/p>\n

On Sunday night, the ERC\u2019s leader Pere Aragones, Catalonia\u2019s outgoing president, told reporters that his party would move into opposition, effectively ruling out backing the Socialists. <\/p>\n

Junts\u2019 leader Carles Puigdemont said his party had performed well but turnout among separatist voters remained low and without a strong showing by the ERC, AC and CUP, his options were limited. <\/p>\n

He previously said that if he didn\u2019t win and the Socialists allied with the PP to lead the region he might withdraw his support from its minority national government – offered after inconclusive national elections in July, risking fresh instability on a national level. <\/p>\n

Political analyst and historian Joan Esculies said whatever came next, the night\u2019s headline was the tamping down of Catalan separatist sentiment: \u201cThe pro-independence movement has run out of ideas to convince or mobilize <\/strong>people as they did before.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barcelona, Spain \u2014 Spain\u2019s Socialists won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday\u2019s Catalan elections, dealing a serious blow to more than a decade of separatist governance and the independence dreams still nursed by some in the wealthy northeastern region. The Socialists, led locally by Salvador Illa, had 42 seats in the 135-seat chamber <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}