Catalonia elects Puigdemont as leader amid wider Madrid divisions

The Catalan parliament voted in a new regional president on Sunday, as part of a last-minute deal that is expected to accelerate the region’s push for independence and raise the pressure on leaders in Madrid to end Spain’s post-election political deadlock.

Carles Puigdemont will have an explicit mandate to lead Catalonia towards secession from Spain over the next 18 months. His government will have the job of, in effect, setting up a state within the state, by creating a separate Catalan central bank, tax authority, social security system and possibly even the nucleus of an independent military.

Mr Puigdemont, a former journalist and the current mayor of the provincial city of Girona, will enjoy what looks to be a solid parliamentary majority to implement that plan.

The renewed push for Catalan independence is certain to ultimately meet fierce resistance from Madrid, but it comes at a moment of pronounced weakness and political drift in the Spanish capital.

Last month’s general election produced a deeply fragmented parliament, with no obvious path for either the left or the right to form a stable government.

Analysts said the formation of a pro-independence government in Catalonia was likely to raise the pressure on mainstream parties in Madrid to set aside their own differences and establish a unionist common front against Barcelona.

“You could have a situation where there is a government in Catalonia going full steam ahead towards independence and with a strong majority in parliament, while here in Madrid you have nothing,” said José Ignacio Torreblanca, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“So this really adds to the pressure to either form a new Spanish government or go quickly for new elections. Either way, party leaders won’t have much time to figure it out.”

Mariano Rajoy, the current Spanish prime minister and leader of the centre-right Popular party (PP), was quick to capitalise on the events in Catalonia. Just hours after the news of the deal filtered through on Saturday, Mr Rajoy’s office issued a statement calling for the creation of a “Spanish government with a broad parliamentary base that will guarantee stability . . . and confront the secessionist challenge”.

That appeal is likely to prove particularly problematic for Spain’s Socialist party, which is opposed to Catalan secession but also fears the electoral backlash of a government pact with its historic rival. Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist leader, has repeatedly ruled out a deal with Mr Rajoy and the PP.

Mr Puigdemont replaces Artur Mas, who served as president of Catalonia from 2010 and has played a crucial role in escalating the region’s clash with Spain in recent years. His resignation was the price demanded by the far-left Popular Unity Candidacy, the smaller of the two pro-independence parties, in exchange for supporting the new government.

He [Artur Mas] will serve as something like the guardian of the independence process

Mr Puigdemont, like his predecessor, belongs to Junts pel Si, the larger and more mainstream secessionist party. Last September, the two parties won a joint majority of seats in the Catalan parliament but then fell out over who should lead the government.

Mr Mas made clear over the weekend that he was not retiring from politics altogether, and was ready to serve the new Catalan government in a different capacity. That assurance — along with the relative inexperience and low national profile of the new president — has prompted widespread speculation that Mr Mas will continue to play an important role in the independence campaign.

“He will serve as something like the guardian of the independence process. And if things don’t work out, he has the chance to stand again as a candidate [for the presidency] in the next elections,” said Oriol Bartomeus, a political scientist at the Autonomous University in Barcelona.

Crucially for Mr Mas and his party, the 11-hour deal with the CUP means that they will not now face the threat of a repeat election in March.

A new poll would have dealt a heavy blow to the independence campaign, not least by highlighting the discord inside the pro-secession camp and the failure of its leaders to rally behind a common leader and strategy. It was also far from clear whether the independence camp would be able to repeat the strong result it obtained in last year’s regional ballot.