Catalan separatists projected to win majority in regional polls

Opinion poll shows Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party will gain 36-38 seats, while centre-right Junts per Catalunya to get 30-33 in the 135-seat assembly.

Separatist parties in Spain’s Catalonia region look set to jointly win a majority of seats in the regional parliament, according to an opinion poll published by TV3 as polls closed. Held more than three years after a failed bid to break away from Spain, Sunday’s vote gauged the strength of the region’s pro-independence movement in an era dominated by the coronavirus crisis rather than separatist sentiment. The opinion poll showed that the two main rival separatist parties – the left-wing Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC) and the centre-right Together for Catalonia (Junts per Catalunya) would get 36-38 and 30-33 seats, respectively, in the 135-seat assembly. Far-left separatist party Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) would get seven seats.