Catalonia election: Expert says to 'be careful' with the figures
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Arancha Gonzalez spoke to Nick Robinson on the Today programme and explained that while pro-independence parties in Catalonia won 51 percent of the vote, they secured nearly a million less votes when compared to 2017. Pro-independence parties like Together for Catalonia, Republican Left of Catalonia and Popular Unity Candidacy now hold 74 out of 135 seats after the People’s Party and the Citizens Party lost seats – especially the Citizens Party who lost 30. Spain did not appear worried about the issue of independence, however, as President Pedro Sanchez tweeted out his support for the Socialists’ Party of Catalonia who secured the most individual support.
Speaking to Mr Robinson, Ms Gonzalez said: “Well, let’s look at the results of the election, it’s a clear win for the candidate from the Socialist Party.
“The candidate put a very clear bet on dialogue and bet on the reunion of all Catalans, clearly bet on providing answers to the everyday problems of the Catalan citizens.
“He is the only and clear winner of this elections, every other party in Catalonia has lost votes, compared to the last election the only winner is him.
“And this is what the Spanish government wants dialogue, reunion discussion and, above all, leaving behind the politics of unilateralism that (dominated) Catalonia and Spain in the last four years.
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Host Robinson then asked: “You say leaving it behind but it is a fact, isn’t it, the pro-independence parties have increased the majority and got a majority of the votes?”
Ms Gonzalez replied: “Well if you look at the votes that they’ve basically lost about 800,000 votes compared to the last election so we’ve got to be a bit cautious with the figures.
“The only political party that has won votes, compared to the last election is the Socialist Party, the only one that is clearly wanting to turn the page to move and look forward to going through a dialogue process.
“This is the only party that has won votes, all other parties, including ‘independentists’, have lost votes compared to last time.
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“So we’ve got to be a little bit careful with the figures and we’ve got to be careful to draw very stark conclusions from the votes that took place yesterday.”
Only 54 percent of the electorate turned out which many attributes to the pandemic.
When compared to the 2017 election, around 79 percent voted.
In Spain, proportional representation is used for their elections where politicians are put onto a list and are awarded seats depending on their percentage support.
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This means the Spanish government is made up of many parties as support is directly translated into seats in Parliament.
Different Spanish regions have different numbers of “MPs” allocated, depending on the population.
In Catalonia, it is an autonomous region and has elections outside of the normal Spanish General Election.
68 seats of the 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia are needed for a majority which means political parties will need to form coalitions to ensure a majority in Parliament.
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