Catalan election - unionist gains, pro-independence losses, and what’s next
The Catalan snap election is over, and the voters gave the Catalan Socialist Party, PSC, a whopping 28% of the vote, which translates into 42 seats. But falling short of an absolute majority of 68 seats, the results mean that the Socialists now have to find new alliances to form a government. This episode of Filling the Sink was recorded bright and early on the first morning of the new political cycle. Gerard Eschaich Folch joins Lea Beliaeva Bander to break down the election results and answer the question: who will govern Catalonia for the next four years and what is in store for us? The early May elections, the result of a failed budget deal in the Catalan Parliament in March, showed how the Catalan independence parties seem to have lost momentum, even though Junts+Puigdemont for Catalonia won three more seats compared to 2021. The biggest loss was seen in the left-wing Esquerra Republicana, a party that went from governing to losing 13 seats, while the anti-capitalist formation CUP lost half of its seats, ending up with only 4. At the same time, the conservative pro-unionist People’s Party celebrated its biggest victory in years with 12 new seats, becoming the fourth largest party in the Catalan parliament, while the far-right VOX maintained its 11 seats from the last cycle. The biggest surprise was the entry of the far-right pro-independence party Aliança Catalana, which won 2 seats in Catalonia. We will hear the reactions from all the major presidential candidates and talk about what coalitions we can expect - with some being more likely than others. The Catalan phrase of the week is ‘colze a colze’ which means arm in arm, something the parties will now have to do to form a lasting coalition.