Catalan separatist party sees election results as an opportunity to achieve independence
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Catalan separatist party Junts will seek to use the “window of opportunity” created by Spain’s national election to achieve Catalan independence, its General Secretary Jordi Turull said on Monday.
A referendum and a political amnesty are key to resolve Catalonia’s political conflict, he added in an interview with local radio station RAC 1.
Junts could be key in allowing Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to form a new government. The party has ruled out supporting the conservative People’s Party which came first in Sunday’s election.
Former Catalan regional government head Carles Puigdemont, who lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium since leading a failed push to split Catalonia from Spain in 2017, unexpectedly finds himself a potential kingmaker after no bloc on the left or right won enough seats to form a majority.
One path out of the labyrinth would be for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to secure a vote in favour, or at least an abstention, in a parliamentary vote on forming a government from Puigdemont’s Junts party in exchange for further concessions on independence.
The centre-right People’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox won the most seats in parliament with a combined 169 – short of the 176 seats needed for a majority and confounding poll predictions. The ruling Socialists (PSOE) and far-left Sumar won 153 but have more possibilities for negotiating support from small Basque and Catalan separatist parties, as they did following 2019’s election.
