Hardliners vote to quit divided Catalan separatist gov’t

BARCELONA — Catalonia found itself plunged into political uncertainty on Friday after the hardline JxCat Party decided to pull out of the separatist coalition running the wealthy northeastern region of Spain.

The decision to abandon the regional government came after a vote by party activists in which some 55 per cent said they wanted to leave, compared with 42 per cent who wanted to stay.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, speaking on the sidelines of an EU summit in Prague, called for "stability" at such a "complex time" for Catalonia.

But the decision will not bring down the Catalan administration, at least not in the short term, with regional leader Pere Aragones saying he won't call early elections.

Instead, his left-wing ERC will govern with a minority.

"We will not abandon the citizens in complicated moments like this, that is why we must continue to govern," Aragones assured late Friday.

Aragones could seek the support from Sanchez's socialists in the Catalan parliament in order to pass key measures such as the regional budget.

The ERC “will absolutely need to seal an agreement with the socialists”, said Gabriel Colome, political science lecturer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Sanchez on Friday said his party “will always reach out for dialogue... for the general interest of Catalonia”.

‘Failed government’ 

Since 2016, JxCat has served in various ruling coalitions with ERC, with this latest lineup taking shape in May 2021.

Although both parties are in favour of Catalonia gaining independence from Spain, they have been sharply at odds over how to achieve it.

JxCat is headed by former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont who played a key role in staging the October 2017 referendum banned by Madrid and the failed independence bid that followed, sparking Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Puigdemont fled abroad to escape prosecution while others who stayed in Spain were arrested and tried. Nine were handed heavy jail terms by the Spanish courts but later pardoned.

The failed independence bid triggered a bitter rift between the two separatist parties that has never healed.

ERC backs a negotiated strategy via dialogue with Madrid, while JxCat prefers a confrontational approach on grounds that Spain has ruled out any new independence referendum.

Tensions between the two parties came to a head last week when JxCat threatened to call a vote of no confidence, prompting Aragones to sack his deputy Jordi Puignero, the hardline party’s top official in the Catalan government.

Laura Borras, speaker of the Catalan parliament and a JxCat MP, called Aragones’ administration “a failed government” more concerned with making agreements with the Spanish socialists than with reaching consensus within the regional coalition.