Voters in Spain's richest north-eastern region of 7.5 million people on Sunday have been casting their ballots in what was billed by Catalan nationalist leader Artur Mas as a referendum on whether the region should secede from Spain.
A poll released by Catalan television channel TV3 gave pro-independence parties between 74 and 79 seats from a total of 135, while a survey for radio station COPE gave them between 71 and 76. TV3 said pro-independence parties had won 49.8 percent of the vote while COPE gave them 48 percent.
Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull, reporting from Barcelona, said the result of the vote "could set the stage for a political and constitutional crisis in Spain, and possibly, beyond".
"Confronting this popular will for independence is the government in Madrid. It says the Spanish constitution specifically precludes any unilateral moves to break up the union. It has successfully used the constitutional court to block such moves and will continue to do so," our correspondent said.
Mas told a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters as he was wrapping up his election campaign on Friday that the vote would "lead to freedom".
"Sunday is a special day for the future of Catalonia. It is an historic day," he said.
For his part, Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, urged voters to return Catalonia to "normality".
"There is a majority of Catalans who love their people and love their land, and do not want to see it amputated from Spain and from Europe," he told supporters.
Nationalists in Catalonia, which has its own language and cultural traditions, complain that they get less back from Madrid than they pay in taxes.
Mas has promised to launch a roadmap towards independence by 2017 if he wins a majority in the regional parliament.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
27/9/15
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Separatist parties won an absolute majority of seats in Catalonia's regional parliament on Sunday, deepening a standoff with Spain's central government over independence...
ReplyDeleteThe main secessionist group "Junts pel Si" (Together for Yes) won 62 seats in the 135-strong assembly in Spain's wealthy northeastern region, while smaller leftist party CUP won another 10 seats, official results showed.
They jointly won 47.33 percent of the vote.
"Catalans have voted yes to independence," acting Catalan regional government head Artur Mas told supporters after 70.78 percent of the vote was counted.
Both secessionist parties have said that they will unilaterally declare independence within 18 months, something the central government in Madrid says it will block in court because the Spanish constitution does not allow it.
Reuters