Spain’s Catalonia holds key election amid fears over COVID

Vote could signal appeal of Catalan secessionists and the political trajectory of the pro-independence movement.

Polls have opened in Catalonia for an election overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and which Madrid hopes will unseat the region’s governing separatists more than three years after a failed bid to break away from Spain. Whether the election is won by the separatist parties now in power in the region or another party such as the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party who lead Spain’s central government, it is unlikely to lead to any repeat of the chaotic, short-lived declaration of independence in late 2017. But it will still be an important signal of the separatists’ appeal and could affect the political trajectory of the pro-independence movement for years to come.