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Catalonia. Puigdemont in 2nd place and ready to form a "solid government"

The leader of Together for Catalonia (JxCat), Carles Puigdemont, who came second in the Catalan elections, today declared that he was ready to form a "solid government" and challenged the Republican Left of Catalonia, in third place, to reflect on "the effects of disunity".

Catalonia. Puigdemont in 2nd place and ready to form a "solid government"
Notícias ao Minuto

22:20 - 12/05/24 por Lusa

Mundo Catalunha

In a statement in Catalan, made from the south of France, since he has an arrest warrant pending in Spain, the former regional president said that if the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) "is willing to rebuild bridges and enter into this reflection on the effects of the disunion and the lack of a common strategy" of the independentists, his party will also be there.

Puigdemont declared himself in "conditions to build a solid government, with purely Catalan obedience" and said that he will dedicate "the next hours and days" to this task.

The JxCat (center-right) won 35 seats in the Catalan 'Parlament', three more than in 2021, with 21.64%, when almost 99% of the votes had been counted. However, the pro-independence movement lost the absolute majority it had in the Catalan parliament 14 years ago, given the fall of the ERC, currently in power, to third place (from 33 to 20 seats) and the CUP (from nine to four).

The leader of the JxCAt criticized the possibility of a so-called "tripartite government" of the left - between the Socialists, who won the Catalan elections, the ERC, and the Comuns Somar -, who would have "such a fair majority".

"It is still a bad option for the government of Catalonia", he considered.

At the beginning of his speech, Puigdemont congratulated "without ambiguity" the Catalan socialists (PSC), who won the elections with 42 seats.

The Junts candidate attributed the PSC's victory to the "mobilization of the unionist electorate" and to a "strategy of Hispanization promoted" by the Catalan socialists, which coincided with a pro-independence movement that "continues without mobilization and continues to abstain".

He defended that this is the moment to start "a long-postponed reflection on the effects of disunion and the lack of a common strategy" among the pro-independence parties.

For the candidate, who in 2017 led a unilateral declaration of independence of Catalonia, the JxCat obtained "a meritorious result" in these elections, being the only pro-independence party "that grew in votes and in number of deputies".

Even so, he regretted that the result of the JxCat was not enough to win the elections or to "compensate for the drop in votes suffered by the pro-independence parliamentary candidates".

[News updated at 11:29pm]

Read Also: Independentistas lose majority after 14 years. Socialists win (Portuguese version)

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