SEVEN MILLION voters dealt a stunning blow to the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) in regional elections on Sunday.
In the worst result in the party’s history, it dropped nine seats, down from 37 to only 28, in the 135-seat parliament and lost control in the region it has governed for the last six years.
PSC leader and defeated president José Montilla announced that he would stand down after municipal elections in spring; he said yesterday that he was also resigning his seat to allow the party to start with a clean slate.
The outright winners in the election were the centre-right nationalist Convergence and Union group (CiU), which increased its support from 48 to 62 seats.
Although short of an overall majority, incoming president Artur Mas has sufficient seats to govern with occasional support from a smaller nationalist parties.
The conservative Popular Party, the main opposition group in the Madrid parliament, also increased its support from 14 to 18 seats.
It welcomed this increase as sign of discontent with the Zapatero socialist central government, concern at Spain’s dire financial crisis. The Popular Party is also believed to have drawn support from many residents in Catalonia who are unhappy with the growing mood of separatism in the region.
CiU is a nationalist party which is demanding greater autonomy for the region. Although it is not officially a separatist party, a growing number of its members are pro-independence and they will almost certainly increase their separatist demands once Mr Mas is sworn in next month.
During the campaign, he said he was not calling for independence or even a referendum on the issue. He would vote in favour if a referendum was held.
Another sign of this new separatist sentiment is the new Solidarity for Independence Party (SI), formed less than four months ago by Joan Laporta, the former president of Barcelona Football Club.
Surprisingly for such a new party, SI won four seats and yesterday offered support to CiU on the condition it declared unilateral independence for Catalonia during its four-year term.
The results are a concern in the for the Socialist Party (PSOE) in Madrid, where there are fears the losses will be echoed in the nationwide municipal elections in May and have possible repercussions in general elections due a year later.
Celestino Corbacho, the Catalan Socialist politician who stepped down as labour minister in the central government to stand in the regional elections, said that PSOE must take responsibility for its defeat, analyse the situation and take steps to remedy it.