Catalan separatists lose majority; Spain’s pro-union Socialists win

BARCELONA, Spain — Separatist parties are in danger of losing their decade-long hold of power in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, with the pro-union Socialist Party poised to win the most votes in an election Sunday, according to a near-complete count of the ballots.

The four pro-independence parties, led by the Together party of former regional president Carles Puigdemont, were set to get a total of 61 seats, short of the key figure of 68 seats needed for a majority in the chamber.

The Socialists led by former health minister Salvador Illa were on course to win 42 seats, up from 33 in 2021, when they also barely won the most votes but were unable to form a government.

The Socialists will still need to earn the backing of other parties to put Illa in charge. Dealmaking in the coming days, maybe weeks, will be key to forming a government. Neither a hung parliament nor a new election is out of the question.

But Illa’s surge should bode well for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the Socialists before European Parliament elections next month.

Separatists have held the regional government in Barcelona since 2012 and had won majorities in four consecutive regional elections. But polling and a national election in July showed that support for secession has shrunk since Puigdemont led an illegal — and futile — breakaway bid in 2017.

“The candidacy that I led had a good result, we are the only pro-independence force to increase in votes and seats, and we assume the responsibility that entails,” Puigdemont said. “But that is not enough to compensate the losses of the other separatists parties.”