Catalonia’s pro-independence parties scored a victory in the region’s election on December 21, winning an absolute majority in the regional parliament. Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned Catalan leaders not to restart their campaign for secession.
Catalonia, Spain’s richest region that accounts for nearly a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product, represents one of the greatest political challenges to Spain since its return to democracy in the mid-1970s.
The Catalan parliament unilaterally declared independence from Spain after an illegal referendum on independence held on October 1. From the 43 per cent of Catalans who voted, 90 per cent supported independence. Most opponents of secession boycotted the poll. The 17,000-strong regional police force defied judicial orders to stop the poll.
The unilateral declaration of independence forced the central government to take the unprecedented step of imposing direct rule over the region under Article 155 of the Spanish 1978 constitution, ousting the rebel administration, dissolving the regional assembly, taking over the region’s police force and calling a new regional election. The world at large showed full support for Madrid’s handling of the crisis.
The separatist push spooked international investors and weighed on Spain’s economic recovery (the government has revised down Spain’s growth forecast for 2018 from 2.6 per cent to 2.3 per cent). The region’s big banks – including CaixaBank and Sabadell – and other businesses moved their legal domicile out of Catalonia in October in an attempt to insulate themselves from the political fallout. Carles Puigdemont, the leader of the former Catalan government, fled to Brussels to avoid charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds. Several of his ministers stayed behind and are now in jail awaiting trial for their role in organising the illegal referendum. Mr Puigdemont faces up to 30 years in prison if he returns to Spain.
The three pro-independence parties (centre-left Esquerra Republicana, the centre-right Junts per Catalunya and the far-left CUP) took 70 out of 135 seats in the legislature in the December 21 election, regaining a majority they won in 2015. Mr Puigdemont’s Junts per Catalunya emerged as the second-biggest party and the largest force inside the separatist bloc. The anti-independence Ciudadanos party won more votes and seats than any other, taking 36 seats on the 25 per cent of the vote. Spain’s ruling conservative Popular party (PP) came a dismal seventh place, taking just three seats as voters opposed to independence shifted to Ciudadanos.
The separatists once again failed to win the majority of the popular vote, securing 48 per cent of the popular vote, barely down on 2015. Turnout reached a record high, at more than 82 per cent. The independence movement has so far always failed to win the majority of votes in an election.
Catalonia argues that it pays too much in taxes to subsidise Spain’s poorer regions. Madrid declined to agree to a deal on financing in 2012, which left separatists with no choice but to push for independence. A new system of regional financing, therefore, is necessary to ease tensions. However, granting Catalonia extra powers – to raise its own taxes, for example – may lead to other regions demanding the same privileges.
Rule over Catalonia by Madrid remains in place until a new administration is formed. The Rajoy government is willing to invoke emergency powers under Article 155 of the constitution again if necessary.
Photo: Sasha Popovic
