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Catalan Elections Carry Risk for Premier Sanchez in Madrid

Catalan Elections to Be Held After Region’s Budget Approved

(Bloomberg) -- Catalonia’s separatist President Joaquim Torra said he will call early elections, adding a fresh element of instability to Spain’s national political scene by bringing his two-year-old administration to an end.

The Catalan legislature has reached the end of the road because unity between pro-independence parties has broken down, Torra said in a televised speech Wednesday. The vote will come after Catalan legislators pass a budget, he said.

Catalan Elections Carry Risk for Premier Sanchez in Madrid

Torra’s decision to call elections brings a fresh headache for Sanchez, who is reliant on support from the separatist party Esquerra Republicana to govern. An election in Catalonia means Esquerra will have to do battle with Torra’s Junts per Catalunya party for pro-independence support among the electorate.

That risks making it harder for Esquerra to back the central government in Madrid. At the same time it raises the prospect of a potential realignment of political forces after Torra conceded that the separatist alliance ruling in the northeastern region of Spain had splintered.

“It will have an impact on the wider Spanish scene because it shows how the Catalan situation continues to set the agenda,” said Antonio Barroso, deputy director of research at Teneo Intelligence in London. “Esquerra has tried a more pragmatic strategy with Sanchez but now it has to fight a very tough election in Catalonia.”

Torra’s announcement comes after coalition partner Esquerra broke ranks with him after he refused to abide by a an electoral-board decision that he could no longer serve in the Catalan parliament. Torra sought to cast his vote in the assembly in a session earlier this week only to be told by the parliament speaker that it wasn’t valid.

While Junts per Catalunya deputies stood to applaud him, those from Esquerra Republicana sat quietly in their seats, providing a clear image for the media of the evident rift between between them. Both the speaker of the parliament and Torra’s vice-president are members of Esquerra.

“No government can function without unity, a common and shared strategy and without loyalty between partners,” Torra said. The Catalan budget process begins later on Wednesday and could take of months to complete. Torra said he’ll meet with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez soon, as previously announced.

Pro-independence parties have failed to win a resounding majority either in opinion polls or voting booths in the recent past. Recent surveys by the Catalan government’s own pollster have shown that support for independence has been falling.

Junts, Esquerra and another small separatist group won a narrow majority in the Catalan assembly in the region’s last election held in December 2017. That vote followed the decision by former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the People’s Party to use constitutional powers to oust a separatist administration that had made a failed attempt to declare independence from Spain.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Madrid at rorihuela@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Charles Penty

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