Catalonia is set to have a new government after the separatist parties, who have been ruling the region for ten years, lost the majority in the regional Parliament on Sunday. According to initial results, the Socialist Party (PSOE) of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez emerged victorious, six and a half years after a failed secession attempt in 2017, reports AFP from News.ro. The three separatist parties, which had a majority in the regional Parliament, obtained 59 seats, while the absolute majority is 68 seats. Carles Puigdemont's Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia, JxCat) party won 35 seats. The other major separatist party, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) of the current regional president Pere Aragonès, lost significant ground and obtained only 20 seats, while the CUP won four. In the last regional election in February 2021, the three parties won a combined 74 seats, which allowed the separatist bloc to continue ruling the Spanish region of Catalonia.
The Socialist Party will need allies in order to govern, as they obtained only 42 seats. The most likely scenario, according to analysts, is a coalition with the radical left - with which Pedro Sánchez is currently governing Spain - and ERC, which would result in the breakup of the separatist bloc. Pedro Sánchez made this election a central issue of his term, hoping to show that Catalonia has turned its back on separatist ambitions. The region, located in the northeast of Spain and home to eight million people, is one of the main economic and industrial engines of the country. In 2017, under the leadership of President Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia attempted to secede from Spain, triggering one of the most serious crises in the country since it returned to democracy after the Franco dictatorship in 1975.
On Monday, Carles Puigdemont announced that he will present his candidacy for government formation in the new regional Parliament, leading to a minority government consisting of separatist parties. "I believe there are options to form a government and, as a result, I announce my intention to present my candidacy," announced Puigdemont, who has been living in exile in Belgium since the failed secession attempt in 2017. He made this announcement at a press conference in southern France, in Argelès-sur-Mer.
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