Voting has begun for the regional administration in Spain’s richest region. Catalan secessionists pushed for years for an independence referendum…
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Mas says that the region would be better off independent, with greater control over its taxes.
As many as 12 people were injured after a crowd rushed a stage during a music festival Saturday night at a park near the city’s downtown, authorities said.
“We have had to overcome many obstacles from the state institutions”, he said on Sunday.”But at last the ballot boxes are in place and there will be a plebiscite, politically speaking, on the future of Catalonia”.
November 26, 2012: Mas’s centre-right CiU alliance wins the snap election overall but loses its absolute majority in the regional parliament, forcing it to broker an alliance with the left-wing nationalists ERC.
The leader of the main opposition Socialists, Pedro Sanchez, called on the region to “heal its wounds” and denounced what he called the “intransigence” of the PP in the dispute.
“As democrats we were prepared to accept the defeat”.
We will update when vote results are known.
Parties pushing for independence from Spain were on track to win a majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament, early results and exit polls showed on Sunday.
But Ines Arrimadas, the Citizens party’s top regional candidate, said Mas should resign because “the majority of Catalans turned their back on him”.
Junts pel Si insiders had always felt that they would need 50 per cent of the vote to win worldwide legitimacy for any unconstitutional breakaway.
Ms. Arrimadas’s party, Ciudadanos, which took a clear stance against independence, won 25 seats in the election, the most among the four pro-union parties that will sit in parliament.
“No one will destroy the unity of Spain,” he said.
The campaign has been split down the middle between parties in favour or against secession from Spain.
Formally the objective of the vote is to decide the membership of Catalonia’s 135-seat regional government.
Nicholas Spiro, head of Spiro Sovereign Strategy, said the result “raises more questions than it answered” and made for an uncertain national election later this year.
Catalans from both sides of the independence divide are fiercely proud of their Catalan language, which is spoken along with Spanish and was suppressed under three decades of Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. CUP leaders have also declared that they want an immediate declaration of independence rather than the 18-month secession roadmap favored by the “Yes” bloc. Spain has recently introduced legislation to allow for the suspension of elected officials who defy the central government, something clearly aimed at the separatists.
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“Even if secessionist parties are able to remain united – a big if – and continue pushing for independence, any concessions from Madrid would probably help to stymie the movement’s momentum”. Deep down I don’t want independence.
