A leader of a pro-independence group has claimed victory for the three pro-secession parties in Catalonia’s elections.
“We can say that pro-independence forces have won the elections.” said Agusti Alcoberro, vice president of Catalan National Assembly, a pro-independence civic group. He spoke late Thursday, after 90 per cent of the votes had been counted.
Alcoberro told a crowd gathered in Barcelona’s Maritime Museum that secessionists “demand the restitution of the [Catalan] government and the release of the political prisoners.”
The pro-independence parties in Catalonia include Together for Catalonia — led by deposed president Carles Puigdemont — as well as Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), and Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).
The three parties are poised to regain a majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament, according to provisional results. Unless the results change after the final votes are counted, the three secessionist parties together have won enough votes for 70 seats in the 135-seat assembly.
Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont arrives to attend a gathering to watch the election results for Spain’s Catalonia region in Brussels on Thursday. After early vote counts, he was on track to regain his leadership of secessionist parties in the regional parliament. (Associated Press)
If the results are confirmed following final vote counts, it will mean that the pro-independence parties can again get a chance to form a regional government, nearly two months after Spain dismissed the previous government.
But it’s still not clear if the three parties, who together pushed ahead with a banned independence referendum, can agree now to form a new government.
Biggest single party is anti-independence
However, the unionist Citizens party, led by 36-year-old lawyer Ines Arrimadas, looks set to become the biggest single party, with 37 seats in the parliament. The leader of the pro-Spanish party that won the most votes in Catalonia’s elections promises her party will continue to fight the region’s separatists.
“The pro-secession forces can never again claim they speak for all for Catalonia,” said Arrimada late Thursday as the final results rolled in. “We are going to keep fighting for a peaceful co-existence, common sense and for a Catalonia for all Catalans.”
Citizens party leader Ines Arrimadas gestures at the party headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday. The anti-independence party Citizens, led by Arrimadas, is likely to win the highest number of votes for a single party. (Manu Fernandez/The Associated Press)
Uncertainty ahead
If confirmed, the election result could open a new, uncertain chapter in Spain’s political story and cast doubts over Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s ability to draw a line under a crisis that has damaged Spain’s economy and prompted a business exodus away from Catalonia.
The election has become a de facto referendum on how support for the separatist movement has fared since Rajoy sacked Catalonia’s government for holding a banned referendum in October on splitting with Spain and unilaterally declaring independence.
Rajoy had hoped the election would return Catalonia to what he has called “normality” under a unionist government, or with a separatist government that will not seek a unilateral split.
Speaking to Catalan reporters in Brussels, where he is evading a Spanish arrest warrant, Puigdemont said that “from the results will come the formula to recover democracy” in Catalonia.
‘It’s not normal’: Puigdemont
Puigdemont fled to Belgium after central government authorities sacked him for pushing ahead with unilateral independence for the region. Other members of his former cabinet were jailed under preliminary sedition charges.
“It’s not normal, an election that takes place with candidates in prison and candidates in exile,” Puigdemont said, referring to his own situation as an imposed absence.
The separatist politician, who can’t vote from Belgium, thanked in a tweet an 18 year-old woman who on Thursday cast a ballot paper on his behalf in a town near Barcelona.
Avui és un dia molt important, no per la Catalunya d’avui sinó per la #Catalunya del futur. I tu Laura representes aquesta albada d’esperança. És el moment que la República dels ciutadans jubili la monarquia del 155 #JuntsxCat #21D pic.twitter.com/5v9Meq0qJE
— @KRLS
Turnout on Thursday reached a record high, with over 83 per cent of eligible Catalans voting.
Polls were peaceful
The atmosphere was one of peace and order as long queues of voters formed, in contrast to the Oct. 1 referendum, which was marked by police firing rubber bullets and wielding truncheons to prevent people voting as the central government cracked down on the illegal ballot.
The independence crisis has damaged Spain’s economy and prompted a business exodus away from Catalonia, its wealthiest region, to other parts of the country. Direct foreign investment in Catalonia fell by 75 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to economy ministry data this week. More than 3,100 companies have moved their legal headquarters out of the region since the beginning of October.
The crisis has also caused concern in other European countries with secessionist regions.