The speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Josep Rull, said on Wednesday that he will give the assembly two months to form a new government or else he will push for new elections.
No party secured an absolute majority in Catalonia’s 135-seat parliament in the 12 May regional elections, which saw pro-independence parties lose their governing majority in the body they had dominated for the past decade. ALSO READ: Catalan pro-independence parties lose majority, as PSC socialists win elections.
The Catalan branch of Spain’s ruling PSOE socialists, the PSC, led by the former Spanish health minister Salvador Illa, won the biggest share of the vote with 42 seats, while the hardline pro-independence Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) party – headed by exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont – finished second with 35 seats.
The Catalan Parliament had until 25 June to vote on a new government but neither Illa nor Puigdemont decided to present themselves to an investiture vote in the assembly, as they had not secured enough backing from other parties to be successful and preferred to keep negotiating.
So the speaker Rull of the JxCat party said on Wednesday that he has set a two-month deadline for parties to agree on a new head of the Catalan government, otherwise a fresh election will be held, which would most likely be in mid-October.
‘After consultations with the parties, none have proposed a candidate to go through the presidential investiture debate by the first deadline,’ he said. ‘However, two of these parliamentary groups have expressed their willingness to explore ways to build an agreement to make the investiture possible over the next two months.’
To win the support of an absolute majority of 68 MPs, Illa will need to secure the backing of the more moderate pro-independence party, Esquerra Republicana (ERC), which won 20 seats in the May election.
The ERC helps prop up socialist Prime Pedro Sánchez’s minority government in the national Spanish Congress but its demands for regional financing so far seem too steep for Illa’s party.
Puigdemont is also courting the ERC but even with their support, as well of that of two other smaller pro-independence parties – the far-left CUP and the far-right Aliança Catalana – he will still fall short of the required 68 seats to enable him to pass an investiture vote. ALSO READ: Puigdemont will still seek to become Catalan president, despite ‘pro-Spain win’.
ALSO READ: Controversial Catalan amnesty law gets final approval in Spanish Congress.
Click here for all our reports related to Catalan independence.
He comunicat formalment i solemne al Ple la impossibilitat de proposar, de moment, candidat a la presidència de la Generalitat, i s’ha activat el termini de dos mesos per a la investidura. Un ple perquè els grups poguessin explicar els punts de vista i la ciutadania escoltar-los. pic.twitter.com/At3grfDlVr
— Josep Rull i Andreu (@joseprull) June 26, 2024
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