Catalan pro-independence parties elect new leader in independence push

After more than three months of negotiations, Artur Mas, who has been the figurehead of the independence movement, agreed on Saturday to step aside as Catalan premier and make way for Carles Puigdemont, mayor of Gerona.

The agreement between Junts pel Si (Together for Yes), a coalition of the centre-right CDC party and leftist ERC party, and the anti-capitalist minority partner CUP gives the separatist bloc a slim majority in the 135-seat Catalan parliament. – Reuters pic, January 11, 2016.Carles Puigdemont, who has been chosen to lead Catalonia to independence from Spain, called on Sunday for the secession process to start in his first speech to local lawmakers as they were on the verge of voting him in as new regional leader. Catalonia formed a government dedicated to splitting from Spain, increasing the pressure on Spanish political leaders to find a way out of their post-election deadlock.

He said he would not take any role in the new government.

The Spanish prime minister – whose own position is unclear since inconclusive elections in December – has insisted that whoever forms the next national government should have “an ample parliamentary base with the stability and capacity to face the separatist challenge”.

Catalonia is a highly industrialised and populous region in Spain’s north-east that accounts for about a fifth of the country’s economic output.

Although he could no longer be regional president, Mas said he would not be retiring from politics.

Meanwhile, the national political parties are manoeuvring for position, with a variety of coalitions possible. “Now (we must) work hard to gain independence”.

If a deal had not been reached by midnight on Sunday, Mas would have had to call fresh elections in Catalonia, which would have come as a major setback for the independence drive.

In a televised address before votes in the assembly were counted, Rajoy pledged to use the full force of the law to stop any act by the new Catalan government that goes against the Spanish constitution.

Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party (PP) came top in the December 20 elections but lost its absolute majority, leaving him struggling to form a coalition government.

Polls show most people in Catalonia, Spain’s richest region with a population of 7.5 million, support a referendum on independence but are divided over breaking from Spain.

“We have known how to set aside our differences to defend the unity of the nation”, Mr Rajoy said on national TV.

Mr Mas himself had become the problem after the CUP, politically far to the left of Mr Mas, had refused to support his bid to continue in office, putting the new parliament in a state of paralysis.