Regional elections in Catalonia: the independence movement would win by a small margin, according to polls

The independence party Esquerra Republicana de Cataluña (ERC) would win the Catalan regional elections this Sunday, with between 36 and 38 deputies, Meanwhile, he Socialist Party (PSC) it would occupy the second place, with between 34 and 36 deputies, although with a greater number of votes, according to the polls of the Spanish public television (TVE) and Catalan (TV3).

The far-right formation VoxMeanwhile, he would enter the Catalan regional parliament for the first time, with between 6 and 7 deputies, ahead of the traditional Spanish conservative party, the People’s Party (PP), with between four or five reps.

The separatists’ goal was not only to maintain their slim majority in the Barcelona-based Catalan parliament, but also to break the barrier of 50% of the popular vote for the first time.

Salvador Illa, who led the Spanish response to the coronavirus as Minister of Health until last month, led the Socialist Party candidacy of the president of the government, Pedro Sanchez. Illa hoped to end the control exercised by separatist lawmakers over the regional parliament over the past decade.

According to the survey published by local television TV3, and carried out over the past two weeks, Illa would have been in the lead in number of votes (24.5%). But in terms of number of seats, it would have been overtaken by the party of the Republican left.

In total, 5,368,881 Catalans were called to vote this Sunday in an election marked by the coronavirus pandemic, which increased postal voting by more than 300% and caused turnout to drop, according to still provisional data.

Authorities urged those particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 to vote between 9 a.m. and noon, while the general population had to do it from noon to 7 o’clock in the evening. This left the last hour of the process, from 7 p.m. until the polls close until 8 p.m., for voters who were infected or quarantined due to recent contact with an infected person.

In a context of high incidence of the virus, participation fell. At 6 p.m. local (17 GMT), only 45.6% of 5.6 million voters voted, 22 points less than the 2017 elections, which broke a mobilization record.

The regional government had tried to postpone the elections to the end of May due to the pandemic, but justice prevented it. Although there was fear of a rout of the citizens designated by lot to work on the electoral system -more than 40% had asked not to go-, all the voting points could open.

To minimize the risk of contagion, the authorities have established voting points in open spaces such as the area around the FC Barcelona stadium or an arena in the city of Tarragona. Voters walked in and had to queue outside in the annoying, intermittent rain.

Catalonia, a rich region of 7.8 million inhabitants in the north-east of Spain, lives in political instability with five regional elections since 2010, when independence began to grow.

The tension reached its peak in October 2017, due to the holding of an illegal referendum on self-determination. marked by police violence and the failure of the proclamation of a republic.

The then regional president, Carles Puigdemont, is in exile in Belgium and nine other leaders are serving sentences of 9 to 13 years in prison for sedition.

Coming to power in 2018, Pedro Sánchez sought to calm the situation and even created a now paralyzed negotiating table in exchange for the ERC facilitating his reappointment in 2019. The president was fully employed in these elections, in which his party had promised to “turn the page” on a decade of separatist unrest.

With information from EFE and AFP

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Elections in Catalonia: between the threat of independence and the star minister of the pandemic