Catalan separatists’ win deepens Spain divide
barcelona — With their leaders in exile or jail, Catalan separatists scrambled on Friday to reap the benefits of defeating Spain’s central government in a divisive regional election.
Madrid had called Thursday’s poll after secessionists declared independence on October 27, in Spain’s worst political crisis since democracy was reinstated following dictator Francisco Franco’s death in 1975.
The vote was widely seen as a moment of truth on Catalonia’s independence question, a hugely divisive issue for the wealthy northeast region, that has rattled a Europe already shaken by Brexit. But with the secessionists maintaining a majority in the Catalan parliament, the move to call snap polls appeared to backfire against Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who had sacked the regional government and dissolved its parliament.
Emboldened by his side’s win, ousted regional president Carles Puigdemont called on Rajoy to hold talks in Brussels or anywhere else in Europe. —
barcelona/madrid — Separatists looked set on Friday to regain power in Catalonia after voters rejected Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s attempt to defuse the independence movement, instead re-igniting the country’s biggest political crisis in decades.
Spanish markets recoiled at a surprise result that is also a setback for the European Union, which must now brace for more secessionist noise as it grapples with the disruption of Brexit and simmering east European discontent.
With the count from Thursday’s Catalan parliament election almost complete, separatist parties had secured a slim majority, sending stocks down around one per cent on fears that the euro zone’s fourthlargest economy will be hurt by tensions with its richest region.
Rajoy on Friday rejected a call by ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to meet after separatists won a parliamentary majority in crucial regional polls.
“The person I should be meeting with is with the one who won the elections, and that is Mrs Arrimadas,” Rajoy said, replying to a journalist who asked whether he would respond to Puigdemont’s invitation for a meeting.
Rajoy was referring to centrist, anti-independence candidate Ines Arrimadas, whose Ciudadanos party won the best individual result in Thursday’s poll — even as the bloc of separatist parties maintained its absolute majority.
The prime minister meanwhile warned that the new Catalan govern- ment should fully respect the law.
This statement was a reference to the former government’s defiance on October 1, when it went held a referendum on independence despite a constitutional ban.
Puigdemont, who campaigned from Belgium after fleeing Spain to avoid arrest for sedition, said now was the time for dialogue between him and Rajoy.
“We’ve at least won the right to be heard,” he said, adding that he was open to returning to Spain if guarantees were given that he could take his position as head of a potential new Catalan government. Currently he faces the prospect of arrest for his role in organising the banned referendum.
“Catalonia is back to square one,” said Marco Protopapa, an analyst at JP Morgan, forecasting that tensions would quickly return between Madrid and an “emboldened pro-independence camp eager to exploit the tactical advantage of a favourable election outcome”.
With Catalonia accounting for a fifth of its economy, Spain had already trimmed growth forecasts for 2018, and the prospect of prolonged uncertainty worries business leaders.
“More companies leaving, less economic activity there - and worse for everyone,” said the chief executive of a listed Spanish company, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the tense climate of the independence debate. More than 3,100 firms have shifted their headquarters out of the region since October’s referendum. —Reuters, AFP