“As of today you don’t tell us what to do; as of today we govern ourselves. Long live the Catalan republic!”
This was how Antonio Baños, candidate of the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), responded to the results of Sunday’s Catalan election, which gave pro-independence parties a majority of seats in the regional parliament.
With CUP and other separatists treating the election as a plebiscite on independence, there was no doubt regarding the target of Antonio Baños’s message: the Spanish state.
The larger, pro-independence coalition, Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes), which with 62 seats was the election’s outright winner, now plans to move ahead with an independence “road map” that envisages the creation of a Catalan state within 18 months, regardless of opposition from the central government.
But even though CUP won only 10 seats, all eyes are now on this anti-capitalist party, without which the secession project cannot progress. The next step in the process is the formation of a new regional government –and premier– in the Catalan parliament and CUP’s seats will be needed.
Acutely aware of its ability to smooth or scupper the process, CUP has repeatedly made clear that it does not want Artur Mas, the conservative nationalist who has been the political face of the independence movement, to remain as regional premier.
“The independence process is not about one person and nobody is indispensable,” said CUP’s Anna Gabriel on Monday. She added: “We will not support the investiture of anyone who is involved in corruption or spending cuts.”
Mas, CUP believe, is tainted by both. The Civil Guard raided the offices of his Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) party last month as part of a corruption investigation and his austerity policies in recent years have been among Spain’s harshest.
Pressure is therefore building on Mas to make way for someone who is more acceptable to the extremely broad array of political ideologies that make up Catalonia’s separatist movement.
Raül Romeva, an eco-socialist who headed the Junts pel Sí electoral list, is an obvious alternative. Another is Oriol Junqueras, a leftist republican who is also in the coalition.
As the pro-independence parties settle into what could be lengthy talks, they have had to defend themselves against the claim that their victory on Sunday was less than convincing.
Turnout of 78%
While CUP and Junts pel Sí together gathered a majority of seats, their share of votes totalled just under 48 per cent. Mas and his allies had insisted throughout the campaign that it was seats, not votes, that would count because the plebiscite was taking place within the framework of a parliamentary election. They also pointed to a record regional election turnout of 78 per cent as proof of the vote’s democratic nature.
But prime minister Mariano Rajoy used the vote share on Monday as he reiterated his refusal to give ground to the separatists.
“Those who support breaking away never had the backing of the law and as of [Sunday] we know that nor do they have the backing of the majority of Catalan society,” he said.
But for Rajoy it was scant consolation for the performance of his own Popular Party (PP), whose seats were slashed from 19 to just 11, losing ground to the more dynamic unionist message of Ciudadanos.
That result is a huge boon to Ciudadanos ahead of Spain's general election in December, especially given Catalonia's importance on the electoral map. La Vanguardia newspaper suggested that while Rajoy's rigid, legalistic stance on Catalonia might appease voters in the rest of Spain, it is a risky strategy for his party and the country's unity.
“Experience shows that Catalonia is where Spanish elections are won or lost,” the newspaper’s editorial noted. “Rajoy must not wait for the general elections to go by before tackling the Catalan conflict. He urgently needs to take decisions on this issue, otherwise every day that passes is going to make it more and more difficult to find a solution.”
