With 90 percent of the votes counted, it looks like parties in Spain’s Catalonia region seeking independence have been able to maintain their majority in the regional elections on Sunday. Spanish media report this on the basis of the first exit polls.
The forecasts also show that the far right Spanish party Vox has won seats in the parliament in Barcelona for the first time. With 90 percent of the votes counted, it looks like the three independence parties together will win 74 of the 135 seats in parliament, up from 70 in the last election in December 2017.
The Spanish government had hoped that the separatists would lose their small majority in parliament. Little consolation for Madrid: the Spanish government party PSOE, which is called PSC in Catalonia and which rejects a split-off, made a profit. The Socialist Party has won 33 seats, up from 17 in the previous elections. However, the separatists have ruled out collaboration with the party, making it virtually impossible for the party to rule.
Benefit from low turnout
Partly due to the corona virus, the turnout among the 5.5 million voters was clearly lower than last time, at the end of 2017. The separatists have a large following of loyal voters and suspected that they would already benefit from a low turnout.
In the fall of 2017, the Catalan parliament declared independence, but Madrid immediately put a stop to this.
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