Spain: Catalonia parliament to vote for new region

“Carles Puigdemont was Saturday selected to replace Artur Mas as the Together for Yes” alliances candidate for investiture as regional government leader.

But at the last minute, Mas agreed to step aside on Saturday, naming the relatively unknown journalist and politician Puigdemont as his successor.

“In the past few weeks (in Madrid), they were saying enthusiastically that Catalonia was sinking, they were so enthusiastic that they had started to relax”, he told members of his CDC party on Sunday. With Catalonia accounting for about 20 per cent of Spain’s output, acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy may be able to use developments in Barcelona to strengthen his appeal to other party leaders to forge a coalition aimed at holding the country together. The prospect of Catalan independence is more than just a political threat the Spain’s integrity: revenue raised from the 7.5 million Catalans is critical to the Spanish state’s ability to fund its activities and service its debt. “It’s going to get messy”.

Under the separatist’s 18-month “roadmap”, Catalan authorities will approve their own constitution and begin building institutions necessary for an independent state such as an army, central bank and judicial system.

Rajoy said he had received the backing of Socialist party leader Pedro Sanchez and newcomer centrist party Ciudadanos’ leader Albert Rivera, having spoken to both that afternoon. Podemos’ insistence on a referendum for Catalonia is unacceptable to Socialist leaders and is proving an obstacle to Sanchez’s efforts to forge an anti-People’s Party pact.

The fate of Catalonia has hung in the balance since regional polls in September, in which secessionist groups came out top although no one party managed to gain an absolute majority.

Under the agreement, Junts pel Si leader and candidate will become head of the Generalitat.

But the honeymoon was short-lived as “Together for Yes”, which won 62 seats, battled with the CUP to form a government over the issue of Mas’ leadership.

The 53-year-old mayor of Girona – who comes from a fervently pro-independence family – will now appoint his cabinet.

A 2010 decision by Spain’s Constitutional Court to water down a statute giving Catalonia more powers has added fuel to the fire and caused support for independence to rise.

If a deal had not been reached by midnight on Sunday, Mas would have had to call fresh elections in Catalonia, which would have come as a major setback for the independence drive.

The current separatist movement in Catalonia has its foundations in injustices perpetrated during the 1939-75 dictatorship of Francisco Franco.