In an internal vote, 55.7 percent of the members of the Joint party approved the withdrawal from the regional coalition government of Catalonia.
Catalonia’s pro-independence coalition government is on the brink of collapse after its junior member decided to quit in the most significant crisis within the Spanish region’s separatist movement in a decade.
In an internal vote on Friday, 55.7 percent of Junts party members approved leaving the regional coalition government amid a spat with the ruling Catalan Republican Left Party (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya).
Deputies’ turnout was 79.1 percent.
Catalan President Pere Aragones said that he will not call early elections. Instead, his leftist ERC intends to rule with minorities.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for “stability” at a press conference in Prague, where he attended the European Union summit.
“In these difficult and complex times, the stability of governments is essential,” he said.
“I am a supporter of stability in this issue of the Catalan government.”
A Junts spokesman told Reuters before the results were announced that his leadership would follow a mandatory vote.
Junts president Laura Borras told a press conference in Barcelona that Aragones had “lost its democratic legitimacy”.
The the crisis of the separatists began Five years after Catalonia’s chaotic bid for independence, Spain has been plunged into its worst political crisis in decades.
Esquerra has suggested in recent days that he would not call a snap election if his junior governing partner decides to resign, but that it would be difficult to rule alone without the left’s parliamentary majority. The coalition was established in May 2021.
At the heart of the dispute is the pace of progress toward independence, an issue that divides moderates and hardliners.
Esquerra has favored talks with Madrid to hold a mandatory referendum and expand support for Catalan secession from Spain. According to a poll conducted in June, about 52 percent of Catalans are against independence, while 41 percent support it.
Junts, whose government led the wealthy northeastern region when it declared independence in 2012, has backed a more aggressive approach, eschewing talks with Madrid and potentially It repeats the events of 2017.
Catalonia then held an independence referendum despite a court ban and in the face of Madrid’s opposition, and later issued a short-lived declaration of independence. Several senior leaders were arrested Due to these events, he went into exile for about four years, while others went into self-imposed exile.
Junts announced plans for an internal vote to stay in government last week after the Catalan leader’s Junts-affiliated deputy was fired after the party proposed a confidence vote in the government in parliament.
