Catalonia backs breakaway poll but batters leader

 
P28 Artur Mas
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Bo Wilson26 November 2012

Voters in Catalonia have backed parties supporting a referendum on independence from Spain — but punished the regional president who triggered an early election.

Artur Mas had made calling a referendum central to his campaign. However, amid anger over his austerity policies, his ruling party lost seats and will have to form a coalition to stay in power.

Catalonia, Spain’s richest region, en-joys significant autonomy. But as Spain battles an economic crisis, with 25 per cent unemployment, many Catalans say they are getting a raw deal from the government in Madrid, and they should break away. Mr Mas has backed these calls. But in yesterday’s election his centre-Right Convergence and Union party lost 12 seats, leaving it with 50 in the 135-seat parliament of Catalonia.

CiU is still the largest party but the big winner was another pro-independence group, the Republican Left. It attacked Mas’s austerity drive and saw its seats more than double to 21. Two small pro-referendum parties also won seats.

The two big parties that back unity with Madrid — the Popular Party of Spain’s prime minister Mariano Rajoy, and the Socialists — won 19 and 20 seats respectively. Mr Mas, surrounded by supporters chanting “independence, independence”, acknowledged his party could no longer rule alone, but said: “Those who want to abort the re-ferendum] process ... have to know how to add and subtract, because the sum of political parties in favour of the right to choose form a great majority.”

But Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “Mas clearly made a mistake. He promoted a separatist agenda and the people told him they want other people to carry out his agenda.”

Catalonia, with 7.5 million people, has its own language and culture. It generates about a fifth of Spain’s economic output, and many locals feel the central government gives back too little for the taxes they contribute. On September 11, 1.5 million people turned out in Barcelona for a separatist rally.