2024-05-12 08:42:43
Update
May 12, 2024
10:42
The Catalans are called to the polls on Sunday for regional elections, an early vote with a national stake which will measure the strength of the separatists and might decide the fate of the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez.
Populated by eight million inhabitants, this rich region of northeastern Spain, which is one of the economic and industrial engines of the countrybegan voting on Sunday morning to elect the 135 deputies of its regional parliament.
Polls put socialist Salvador Illa in the lead ahead of Junts per Catalunya, the party of Carles Puigdemont, and its rival Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), which currently governs the region.
Carles Puigdemontformer president of Catalonia for a time in exile in Belgium, is the Junts per Catalunya candidate (“Together for Catalonia”).
In 2017, his government organized a self-determination referendum – banned by the courts – and unilaterally declared the independence of Catalonia. Separatist leaders had been arrested and imprisoned, others had fled abroad.
“Today we are stronger, more resilient and determined. It’s time to come back,” said Carles Puigdemont during a campaign event organized Friday in the south of France, on the border with Catalonia.
Carles Puigdemont is the subject of prosecution in Spain for his role in the referendum on the independence of Catalonia declared illegal by the Spanish courts.
He should return to Spain once the amnesty concluded with the Socialist Party Spanish Workers’ Party (PSOE), in power, will come into force.
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