PM urges Catalans to defeat separatists at polls

BARCELONA, SPAIN — Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy urged voters in Catalonia on Sunday to defeat the separatists who led the region’s recent drive for independence when they go to the polls in an early election next month.

Rajoy, who used previously untapped constitutional authority to call the Dec. 21 regional election, told members of his conservative Popular Party at a Barcelona hotel that “we want a massive turnout to open up a new period of normalcy” in Catalonia.

Rajoy’s visit to Barcelona, Catalonia’s main city, was his first to the region since he used the constitutional powers to stifle the secession push led by the regional government.

After Catalonia’s Parliament voted Oct. 27 in favour of declaring independence, Rajoy responded by firing top government officials, dissolving the Parliament and ordering the early election.

Spain’s Constitution says the nation is “indivisible.”

“It’s urgent to return a sense of normality to Catalonia and do so as soon as possible to lower the social and economic tensions,” Rajoy said. “The threat of the separatists is destructive, sad and agonizing. Secessionism has created insecurity and uncertainty.”

Polls show a tight race between Catalan separatists and politicians who want the region to remain a part of Spain. In Brussels on Sunday, those favouring independence for Catalonia rallied near the European Union quarter.

Rajoy’s party has won three national elections since 2011, but secured less than 10 per cent of the vote in Catalonia’s 2015 regional election.

The Popular Party continues to poll behind several other parties in the region, including the probusiness Citizens and the Socialists, which both oppose secession.

The far-left separatist CUP party decided Sunday to participate in the elections. The CUP is one of three pro-secession parties in the region.