After the counting of 73% of the ballots, the three independence groups having until now the majority of seats in the regional parliament, obtained only 59 seats on Sunday while the absolute majority is set at 68.
In detail, Carles Puigdemont’s party, Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia), won 35 seats. The other major separatist party, ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia) of the current regional president Pere Aragonès, has lost a lot of ground and obtained 20 seats while the other far-left independence party CUP obtained 4 seats.
Probable alliance with the radical left
During the previous regional election in February 2021, these three parties obtained a total of 74 seats, allowing the independence bloc to continue to rule the region. Coming clearly in the lead, Pedro Sánchez’s socialists obtained 42 seats but will have to find allies to rise to power in the region. The most credible hypothesis, according to analysts, would be that they ally with the radical left, with whom Pedro Sánchez governs Spain, but also with ERC, which would thus choose to put an end to the unity of the independence bloc .
Pedro Sánchez had made this election a central issue of his mandate, hoping to show that Catalonia had turned its back on its separatist desires. Populated by eight million inhabitants, this rich region of northeastern Spain, which is one of the country’s economic and industrial engines, attempted to secede in 2017, when Carles Puigdemont was at the head of the region. This crisis was one of the worst experienced by Spain since the country’s return to democracy after the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975.