{"id":524094,"date":"2024-07-07T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=524094"},"modified":"2025-12-13T22:50:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:50:20","slug":"legislature-catalogne-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/policy\/world\/legislature-catalogne-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"A misleading reading of the Catalan legislative elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Catalan elections ended in a historic defeat for the pro-independence bloc. At first glance, the Socialist Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez, who theorized about reconciling Spaniards, seems to have emerged stronger. The reality is more complex.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

On May 12, the champagne remained chilled in the Catalan nationalists' offices. For the first time since 1980, an absolute majority in the regional parliament eluded them. While the pro-independence right-wing Junts per Catalunya made timid progress (+3 deputies), Esquerra Republicana (ERC), the pro-independence left-wing party, collapsed (-13 deputies). The big winner was the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), led by Salvador Illa, which became the largest force in Parliament with 42 representatives (+9 deputies). The social-democrat candidate is now the best placed to become president of the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Spain where regional and national politics function as communicating vessels, the mid-May results strengthened Pedro S\u00e1nchez, at least on the surface. To understand why, we need to go back a few months. After the national elections in July 2023, the Socialist once again became Prime Minister thanks to a \u00abpatchwork\u00bb parliamentary majority, supported by a whole host of formations, including the Catalan nationalist parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n