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Friday, March 29, 2024

Constitutional Crisis in Spain; Pro-Referendum Parties Win 87 of 135 Seats

Courtesy of Mish.

Spain takes a giant step towards a full-blown constitutional crisis as Catalans overwhelmingly elect candidates promising a break-up vote.

Catalonia has delivered a sweeping mandate to political parties pledging to hold a referendum on independence in elections that place the northern Spanish region on a collision course with Madrid.

In a vote billed as “the most decisive elections in the history of Catalonia” by Artur Mas, the region’s president, pro-referendum parties won 87 of the Catalan parliament’s 135 seats.

Following weeks of intense debate about Catalonia’s future relationship with Spain, turnout was 69.5 per cent, the highest for a Catalan regional election in nearly 30 years.

The vote comes amid pressure from various regions around Europe for more independence, including proposals for a referendum on the issue in Scotland in 2014.

Spain’s central government has said any move to push ahead with a referendum on independence for Catalonia, which has an economy the size of Portugal’s and makes up about a fifth of Spanish output, would be illegal and against the Spanish constitution.

Catalonia has built up a debt pile of €42bn, the largest of all of Spain’s 17 regions, and is currently locked out of international capital markets. Earlier this year the region was forced to request an emergency €5bn credit line from Spain’s central government to avoid defaulting on payments.

Messy Politics

The ruling (Center-Right) Convergència i Unió party which favors a referenced actually lost 12 seats in the election, from 62 to 50. However, it lost those seats to more radical pro-independence groups.

Artur Mas, leader of Convergència promised a referendum but will have to align with even more radical groups to produce one according to CNN.

Artur Mas, president of the region’s parliament, promised a referendum on independence for one of Spain’s most important regions if he won re-election.

But after the election, Mas has a more difficult task because his center-right Convergence and Union coalition lost 12 of its 62 seats, a strong setback for a party that was hoping to gain a simple majority in the 135-seat legislative body.

The Catalan Republican Left party was the big winner in the elections, winning 21 seats, according to the Catalonia elections web site, which reported 98% of the votes had been counted.

The Catalan Republican Left party also backs independence, and the two parties could form a majority in parliament on the independence issue.

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