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Regional elections will be held on Sunday 12 May 2024 to renew the 135 seats in the Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia.
The coalition government that emerged from the 2021 elections, made up of Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) And Together for Catalonia (Junts) with the external support of the radical left of Candidacy of Popular Unity (CUP)driven by Aragonès Pears (ERC), had dissolved in October 2022. Since then Aragonès had led a minority government which had had to count on the support of the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) and from the left of En Comú Podem (ECP). After the Catalan government failed to approve the regional budget in Parliament on 13 March 2024, due to differences with the ECP, Aragonès announced elections for 12 May. The elections are therefore brought forward by almost a year compared to the natural deadline which would have been January 30, 2025.
These elections will test the shrewdness of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who aims to use the vote to shore up his power domestically but risks inadvertently reawakening a dormant Catalan separatism. Sanchez aims to wrest leadership of the rich region from the separatist parties (ERC and Junts) that exercise enormous influence on Spanish politics. Sanchez is focusing on the local socialist leader, the former health minister Salvador Illa who will have to face the return of the separatist leader, Carles Puigdemont founder of Junts. Puidgdemont fled to Belgium in 2017 to avoid charges brought by Spanish authorities following the unrecognized referendum on Catalan independence from Spain. Thanks to the amnesty provision for pro-independence leaders recently promulgated by the Sanchez government, Puidgdemont announced his candidacy for the Parliament of Catalonia to try to become regional president, a position he had previously held before his exile.
A victory would vindicate Sanchez’s conciliatory approach to the region’s independence movement. But if the Socialists fail to muster the 68 seats needed for a majority in the Catalan assembly and have to rely on alliances with other parties, possibly including the right-wing rivals of the People’s Party (PP), theirs could be a Pyrrhic victory. Junts warned that such a deal with the PP would push him to withdraw his crucial support for Sanchez’s national government, which would deprive Sanchez of his majority in parliament. The only possibility for the PSC to govern would therefore be to find a laborious agreement with the ERC e Sumar Municipality (CS) the left-wing coalition heir to En Comú Podem (ECP).
Last month’s Basque Country elections have already underlined the influence regional politics has on the national government. The Socialists gained votes in that contest and will return as a junior partner in the coalition led by the moderate nationalist party PNV, which itself supports the national government. In Catalonia, the Socialists aim to obtain more than 40 seats in the regional chamber. The Socialists hold 33 seats in the current Catalan assembly, on the same level as the ERC, while Junts has 32. Local socialist leader Illa has vowed to overcome a “lost decade” of separatism and focus on concerns such as climate change – a big problem for Catalonia, which currently faces water restrictions due to a severe drought that has been going on for two years. Socialists fear that Puigdemont could find a majority of pro-independence parties to elect him to the presidency of Catalonia, which would give new impetus to local secessionist drives.
Puigdemont, given that the amnesty will only come into force in a couple of months, is campaigning from across the border in the south of France. Junts organizes buses from Catalonia to go to his rallies in Argeles-sur-Mer, just over the French border. The elections will demonstrate whether voters are nostalgic for Puigdemont and the independence struggle that resulted in the 2017 referendum or whether they want to turn the page and rely on a socialist government led by Salvador Illa.
THE ELECTRIC-POLITICAL SYSTEMORAL
Catalonia is an autonomous community within the parliamentary representative Kingdom of Spain. The institutional system is based on Generalitat de Catalunyawhich includes the Parliament of Catalonia, the President and the Executive Council.
The Executive Council of Catalonia is the executive branch of the Generalitat of Catalonia. It is responsible for the political action, regulation and administration of the government of the autonomous region.
The President of the Generalitat is the head of government: he can also appoint a Prime Minister as his replacement, although since 2006 the position has been replaced by that of the Vice President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, who must be approved by the Parliament of Catalonia. The various ministers are also appointed by the president of the Generalitat. Ministers do not have to be members of parliament, as they have the automatic right to intervene in parliamentary debates.
Members in government service cannot be arrested for acts committed in Catalonia, except in flagrante delicto, and can only be tried before the High Court of Justice of Catalonia or the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Spain outside the Catalonia.
The Parliament of Catalonia is the unicameral legislative assembly of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is made up of 135 deputies, elected every four years, chosen by universal suffrage with a proportional system without recovery of remainders in four multi-member constituencies corresponding to the four provinces of Catalonia.
On the next pages, the country’s political history, recent political developments, the main political parties and the latest polls.
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