BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – The Socialist trade unionist party claimed a narrow victory in the regional elections in Catalonia on Sunday afternoon, but the bloc of parties that supported secession in the north-eastern corner of Spain extended control of the regional parliament.
With 99% of the votes counted, the three main parties that pledged to cut an independent Catalan state increased their number of seats in the regional parliament to 74. In 2017, these same parties won 70 seats in the 135th chamber. seats, only two above the majority.
The Socialist Party led by former Health Minister Salvador Illa was willing to occupy 33 seats with more than 625,000 votes. The pro-secessionist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya also had to claim 33 seats, but with 580,000 votes.
But despite the huge boost in support for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party, which has held talks with separatists to try to ease tensions with the region, Island will have difficulty trying to muster the support of a government. It would need the support of several parties, including some separatists.
“This is a clear victory that has a single read: it’s time to turn the page, write a new chapter, reach out to each other and move forward together,” Island said after his victory.
The result confirms that pro-independence sentiment has not diminished despite the collective suffering of the COVID-19 pandemic and a frustrated secession offer in October 2017 that left several of its members in prison.
It was unclear, however, whether separatist parties would be able to overcome the fighting that has plagued their bloc since the dream of an easy escape from Spain proved difficult to use.
The results shifted power within the pro-secession camp to the left-wing Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party, whose 33 seats saw the center-right Junts per Catalunya emerge, which would win 32 seats.
The Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya of imprisoned leader Oriol Junqueras can now contest the leadership of the bloc with Junts per Catalunya, the party of former Catalan leader Carles Puidemont, who fled to Belgium after the ineffective 2017 pro-independence candidacy.
Together for Catalonia maintains a more radical position to break the ties of Spain in the short term, while the Republican Left of Catalonia lowered its tone over the last year and established as a top priority the amnesty of the central authorities for to Junqueras and other imprisoned leaders – for now.
Adrià Hoguet, a 29-year-old who works in banking, changed his vote from Junts per Catalunya to Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.
“Even though he wants an independent Catalonia, the party knows that it will not be easy and that it cannot be achieved simply now, because we have seen that this will not work,” Hoguet said after voting in Barcelona.
The region’s parliament was also on the verge of becoming more fragmented and more radical.
The far-right party Vox entered the Catalan legislature for the first time with 11 seats, which confirmed its increase throughout Spain in recent years. His success came at the expense of the conservative Partit Popular, which was left with three seats after a campaign in which it softened its formerly tough stance against Catalan secessionists.
Across the spectrum, the far-left, pro-secession CUP party improved to nine of the four seats it won in 2017. Thus, once again, pro-secession forces will need the unpredictable CUP to form the majority.
A potential regional government is likely to depend on agreements between parties that could take days or more to conclude.
The use of face masks and hand sanitizer was mandatory in polling stations, as Spain is fighting another rise in infections for a country that has lost more than 64,000 lives to COVID-19.
For Andrea Marin, a 29-year-old social worker, the pandemic increased her desire to continue a union.
“I voted for the Socialists because I don’t want my vote to go to the separatists,” he said. “They’re already spending a lot of money promoting the separatist cause when what matters today is the economy and ending the pandemic.”
Fears against viruses, bad weather and the absence of a concrete proposal from the separatists to bring about a break again in the near future seemed to dampen voter turnout, which fell to 55%, compared to a record turnout. 79% in December 2017. This seemed to favor pro-secession parties, which work best in rural areas that are over-represented in electoral legislation.
Thus, while the Socialists increased at the expense of liberal citizens, who fell to six seats after winning the December 2017 elections with 36, the Catalan political landscape remained unchanged on the essential issue: the Mediterranean region that limits with France it is still roughly divided between those who support the creation of a Catalan state and those who are fervently committed to remaining part of Spain.
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Associated Press journalist Renata Brito contributed to this report.