Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said Thursday he has decided not to call a snap election, because he hadn’t obtained enough guarantees from the Spanish government that the move would stop the imposition of direct rule in Catalonia.
“I was ready to call an election if guarantees were given,” Puigdemont said. “There is no guarantee that justifies calling an election today.”
He also said it was now up to the Catalan parliament to move forward with a mandate to split from Spain following an independence referendum that took place on Oct. 1.
Several members of his pro-independence coalition had said he would dissolve the regional parliament and call the vote.
Barcelona-based La Vanguardia had said he would call the vote for Dec. 20 and was taking the decision in a bid to persuade the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy not to enforce direct rule in the region, which he might do as soon as Friday.
Catalonians gathered Thursday with separatist flags outside the regional government headquarters in Barcelona. (Yves Herman/Reuters)
The Catalan secessionist drive is Spain’s worst political crisis since the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco ended in 1975. It has fractured society and hundreds of companies have left the region.
It is also the most serious challenge to the integrity of a Western European country since an independence referendum in Scotland in 2014, when voters in the end chose to stay part of the United Kingdom.
European leaders have feared it could spur secessionist ambitions in other parts of the continent.
But cracks appeared late on Wednesday in the independence coalition as some members backed an election while others said there was no alternative to independence.