Socialists win elections in Catalonia | Catalonia

The Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) won this Sunday’s elections, on an election night full of twists and turns. With a majority for the independence bloc removed relatively early on election night, the question in the final stretch of the count was whether a left-wing bloc would obtain an absolute majority to govern, a hypothesis that was put forward, ruled out, and which was once again on the table. Until some time ago, with more than 97% of the votes counted, it seemed that the Socialists, ERC and Sumar would have 68 seats in Parliament, the minimum threshold for a majority, the ERC leader said that it would be up to the two with the most votes. “choose a path”, announcing that his party would “in opposition”.

Shortly afterwards, the leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, said that despite being second, he did not rule out leading a government and challenged the ERC, although it was not clear who else could form a majority government with the two forces: “The distance between the PSC and us is no different to that between the PP and the PSOE in the Spanish Parliament. If the ERC is willing to build bridges, we are too.”​

“After 45 years of history, for the first time the PSC won the elections for the Catalan Parliament in both votes and seats”, celebrated the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa. “The pro-independence parties, which we respect, have 61 seats. Catalonia is entering a new phase. The Catalans decided to open a new stage,” he declared. “Many factors influenced this decision. Certainly one of these factors was the policy carried out by the Spanish government, by its president, Pedro Sánchez”, defended Illa.

With the current count, Salvador Illa’s PSC obtained 42 seats, an increase compared to 2021, when it elected 33 deputies, followed, in second place, by Junts (of former president Carles Puigdemont), with 35 seats. The ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia), of the current president, Pere Aragonès, would obtain 20, a lower result than in 2021, when it elected 33 deputies.

Exit polls showed that fourth place would be contested between the conservative Popular Party (PP) and the radical right party Vox, but as the night progressed, the PP was clearly ahead with 15 places and Vox with 11. These results mean a large increase in support for the PP, which obtained only 3 seats in the last elections, which had been the worst result in its history.

Next would come the left-wing platform Sumar, with 6 seats, and the CUP (left-wing independentist), with 4. Cidadãos would be left out (for the first time since 2006, when it participated in the Catalan elections for the first time) and the Catalan Alliance , a new radical right-wing and pro-independence party, would enter Parliament, obtaining 2 seats.

Of the three with the most votes, the first to speak was Aragonès, assuming the party’s bad result, followed by Puigdemont and finally Illa.