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SPAIN-POLITICS-CATALONIA-VOTE
Catalan separatists boost majority in Spain regional election
BARCELONA, Feb 15, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Catalan separatist parties boosted
their parliamentary majority in a regional election Sunday that was
overshadowed by the pandemic and marked by low turnout, more than three years
after a failed bid to break away from Spain.
With Spain still grappling with a third wave of coronavirus infections, the
vote in the wealthy northeastern region was held under tight restrictions to
reduce the risk of contagion.
With 99 percent of the votes counted, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s
Socialists won the most votes but the three separatist parties together were
set to get 74 seats in the 135-seat assembly.
That is up from 70 seats won in the last election in December 2017, just
months after Catalonia’s failed secession bid which led to the jailing of
several separatist leaders.
To reduce the risk of virus transmission in the region, polling stations
were set up in spacious venues like food markets, the area around FC
Barcelona’s football stadium and the bullring in Tarragona.
Voters had to wear face masks, use disinfectant gel provided at polling
stations and stand apart while lining up in rainy weather to cast their
ballots.
During the last hour of voting, which was reserved for people infected with
Covid-19, polling station workers wore gloves, facial screens and white
protective gowns.
The Socialists had 33 seats, up from 17 in the last vote when they finished
fourth.
Sanchez had hoped the election — Catalonia’s fifth in a decade — would
end separatist rule in the region which accounts for a fifth of Spain’s
economy.
He fielded his health minister Salvador Illa as his candidate in the hope
that his high profile in the fight against the pandemic would help win votes.
While separatist parties have been deeply divided over strategy since the
failed secession bid, they were not punished by voters and for the first time
won over 50 percent of the vote, against 47.5 percent four years ago.
The more moderate ERC got 33 seats, the hardline JxC got 32 and the radical
CUP nine seats.
– ‘Amnesia’ jibe –
The result leaves the ERC’s main candidate, 38-year-old jurist Pere
Aragones, best placed to become Catalonia’s next leader.
“We have stopped an operation by the (Spanish) state to expel separatists
from institutions,” he said after the results were announced. Illa had argued
it was “time to turn the page” after over a decade of Catalan nationalists
governments focusing on separatism but Aragones dismissed his approach during
the campaign as “amnesia”.
He has said his party would not turn the page while independence leaders
remained in jail over the failed secession bid.
Catalonia is currently governed by a coalition led by JxC, which is prone
to confrontation with Madrid, and the ERC, which is open to dialogue and has
helped Sanchez’s minority government pass laws at the national level.
– ‘We are afraid’ –
The anti-coronavirus measures appeared to discourage people from voting.
While some 5.5 million people were eligible to vote, turnout was a record
low at 54.4 percent, down from almost 80 percent in the last election.
“I hesitated until the last minute whether to come vote or not,” Cristina
Caballero, a 34-year-old child educator, told AFP at a Barcelona polling
station.
“I think these elections should have been postponed.”
The regional government tried to put off the election until the end of May
because of the pandemic but the courts blocked that move.
While more than 40 percent of the 82,000 people assigned to help staff
polling stations on the day had asked to be recused, all polling stations
were operating normally as of noon, according to the Catalan government.
Still, some people picked for polling station duty expressed concern.
“Of course we are afraid, I just had cancer and am still on sick leave, but
I was called up,” Eva Vizcaino, a 54-year-old office worker, told AFP at a
Barcelona polling station.
“The last hour is especially frightening, when people with Covid come.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/0935 hrs