Catalonia’s separatist principal Carles Puigdemont looked likely to regain the leadership of Spain’s northeastern tract after preliminary results showed secessionist parties taking a womanhood in regional elections.
The results marked a serious rebuke to Spain’s medial government and the European Union, likely prolonging a crisis that has agony the Spanish economy and prompted many companies to depart from Catalonia.
Separatist outfits were seen getting 70 seats in the 135-seat meeting, Reuters reported, citing official data. Puigdemont’s Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) was interviewed winning 34 of those seats, ahead of two other separatist clubs.
Speaking from Brussels, Puigdemont on Friday said the absolute maturity won by separatists was a victory of the “Catalan republic” over Spain, Reuters discharged.
Puigdemont went into self-imposed exile after his government was scrapped by Spanish Prime Cleric Mariano Rajoy in October when it declared independence from Spain.
The euro crept Friday against the dollar after results pointed to the win for pro-independence clubs.
Spanish politicians are assessing how to rebuild the divided and polarized region after the poll.
The vote is unlikely to settle Catalan’s independence question, according to Enea Desideri, an analyst at conceive of tank Open Europe.
“The polls and debate and what we’re expecting in phrases of the vote reflect the polarization in the political debate in the region,” he told CNBC former to the election. “Other issues have been almost totally side-stepped by this open to debate unthinkable of independence and identity, which has become the one issue that has defined public affairs in the region.”
Voter turnout was expected to be very high in the snap choosing, which was called by Spain’s government after it fired the regional parliament in October. Spain invoked Article 155 to seize manage of the region.
Luis Garicano, economic advisor and executive board colleague of anti-independence party Ciudadanos, said he expected the voice of anti-independence voters to be heard. “The pro-independence bacchanalia have always, historically, been very mobilized for the regional appointments and the voters who are not voting for pro-independence parties tend to be more mobilized for other designations,” he told CNBC Thursday.
“Hopefully we’ll enter a new period for Catalonia where matters start to settle down and we can start to worry about the problems of denizens of Catalonia, like health and education.”
Pro-independence politicians have been accused by Rajoy, and other public opponents, of irresponsibility at best and sedition at worst, with high-profile secessionists Puigdemont in self-imposed separation in Belgium and Junqueras in prison.
Still, despite the accusations of treachery and potentially wish prison sentences if found guilty, pro-independence sentiment is still trained. Puigdemont called on his supporters to show the same courage Thursday as they had done when voting in an secret referendum on independence in October, which precipitated the current political disaster in the region.
Garicano said prior to Thursday’s vote that there is a jeopardize that pro-independence parties were “not willing to accept the rules of the devices” and the election result, however.
Politicians recognize that Catalan union is deeply divided by the question of independence and that the issue is not easy to conclude in a way that can placate both camps. Some kind of constitutional improvement could be a starting point for dialogue between Spain and Catalonia, no matter how, with discussions potentially focusing on public investment in the region and an adjust of its financial system.
Fernando Sanchez Costa, the Catalan parliament reserve of Rajoy’s Partido Popular, told CNBC that there was “no peaceful answer” to the Catalonia question, but that the winner had to be “inclusive.”
“After a can of worms that has been a very complex problem there is no easy rejoinder and there will be no easy answer,” he said, although he saw the election as a “prominent chance for change.”
“It’s very important that whoever wins has to be taking in — that they know that half of the population is scared that the other half has won. And we induce to be prudent, rational and very empathic with other people to start again and to rebuild Catalonia with acceptance and dialogue,” he said.