Catalans vote to gauge push for split or reconciliation with Spain
Al Jazeera
Opinion polls suggest a comfortable lead for a candidate backed by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Polls have opened in Catalonia in a regional parliamentary election whose outcome will reverberate in Spain’s national politics.
Sunday’s ballot is going to be a test of the strength of the separatist movement in the wealthy northeastern part of Spain and of the policies of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is attempting reconciliation with the separatists.
More than 5.7 million voters are eligible to choose lawmakers for the regional parliament based in Barcelona.
Separatists have held the regional government for more than a decade. But polling and a national election in July show that support for secession has shrunk somewhat since Carles Puigdemont, former regional president, led an “illegal” breakaway bid in 2017.
