Catalan separatist leader vows to form minority government despite electoral setback
: MATTHIEU RONDEL/AFP
Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan separatist leader, has said he will seek to form a government in the region, despite Sunday’s election failing to give a majority to independence parties.
Mr Puigdemont, an MEP who campaigned for his Junts party on French soil to avoid being arrested for leading an unlawful attempt to launch an independent Catalonia in 2017, said he would go to the regional parliament in Barcelona to present himself as a candidate for president.
“I am not going to put on a show,” Mr Puigdemont said. “There are genuine options to obtain enough votes,” he added.
Junts was second in Sunday’s election, with 35 seats in the 135-member Catalan parliament. The Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) came first with 42, while ERC, another separatist party, came third with 20 seats.
It is the first time since 1984 that Catalan nationalist parties do not form a majority in the parliament.
Analysts say the Socialists could ally with the radical-Left Comuns Sumar, which won six seats, and moderate independence party ERC, which won 20, to govern.
: Quique Garcia/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The most logical pathway to power would require ERC to support Socialist leader Salvador Illa in his bid to forge a government that would abandon the separatists’ push for independence.
However, Pere Aragonés, ERC’s leader and Catalonia’s outgoing president, said he wanted to go into opposition, potentially ruling out governing with either the Socialists or Junts.
Spain’s government relies on ERC and Junts
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