General election in Catalonia 2021
On February 14, 2021, the election for the regional parliament of Catalonia took place. The 135 members of the regional parliament of the XIII. Legislative period since the Statute of Autonomy came into force in 1979 .
It was a matter of early elections. The date was initially set for February 14, 2021, but was postponed to May 30 by the regional government on January 15, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic .
However, since this postponement was overturned by the court, the election took place on February 14th.
Developments in the XII. Legislative period and election date
Previous election and impeachment of the Prime Minister
The previous election took place on December 21, 2017. On May 14, 2018, Quim Torra ( PDeCAT ) was elected Prime Minister of the region by parliament. He formed a coalition government of PDeCAT and ERC .
During the election campaign for the elections to the Pan-Spanish Parliament on April 28, 2019 , the Junta Electoral Central ordered that symbols of Catalan separatism (especially yellow ribbons ) should be removed from the buildings of the regional government as inadmissible election propaganda by public institutions. Prime Minister Torra did not comply with this order, which is why he was charged with disobedience ( desobedencia ).
On December 19, 2019, Torra was sentenced to a fine of € 30,000 and the loss of the ability to hold public office ( inhabilitación ) by the Supreme Court of the Region of Catalonia ( Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña ) . Torra appealed against this so that the judgment did not initially become final.
On January 3rd, the Electoral Central Junta ruled on the basis of a provision of the Spanish electoral law, according to which the loss of eligibility for convictions for certain offenses (including disobedience) occurs with the conviction, even if the judgment is not yet final 2020 that Torra's mandate should be withdrawn. This decision was upheld by the Spanish Supreme Court ( Tribunal Supremo ) on January 23, 2020. Since the president of the regional parliament Roger Torrent (from Torras coalition partner ERC) implemented this loss of mandate, it came to a coalition crisis. As a result, Torra (who had only lost his parliamentary mandate, but was initially able to remain Prime Minister) announced on January 29, 2020 that the legislative period had no political future for him, and announced a dissolution of parliament after the budget had been passed, so that new elections in the In the course of 2020. Due to the intervening of the COVID-19 pandemic, Torra then refrained from doing this.
On September 28, 2020, the Tribunal Supremo rejected Torra's appeal against the decision of December 19, 2019, whereby the inhabilitación became final and Torra also lost the office of Prime Minister. As a result, his deputy, Pere Aragonès (ERC), became executive prime minister.
Dissolution of parliament and fixing of the election date
On October 21, 2020, Parliament's President Torrent formally stated that, after talks with the parties, he would not be able to propose a candidate for the post of Prime Minister to Parliament. The legal consequence of this finding was that the regional parliament would have to be dissolved after two months if it did not succeed in electing a new prime minister within this period. Since there was no such thing (and there were no candidates at all), the Acting Prime Minister Aragonès ordered the dissolution of parliament by decree of December 21, 2020 and, in accordance with the provisions of the electoral law, set new elections on the 55th day after the dissolution ( so on February 14, 2021).
However, the decree contained a provision that allowed the election date to be postponed if the election on February 14, 2021 should not be possible due to the development of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same way, the regional elections in the Basque Country and Galicia , which were originally supposed to take place on April 5, 2020, had already been postponed to July 12, 2020 in spring 2020 .
Failed postponement of the election date
In January 2021, the pandemic situation in Spain and Catalonia worsened again ("third wave"). On January 15, 2021, the regional government heard the parties represented in the regional parliament, all of which were in favor of postponing the election. Opinions differed only on the question of the exact new election date. By decree of the same day, the acting Prime Minister Aragonès canceled the election date of February 14, 2021. The decree named May 30, 2021 as the likely new election date, but did not set it definitively.
However, following complaints from several parties not represented in parliament and one eligible voter, the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña overturned the decree postponing the election on January 22, 2021, so that the election took place on February 14, 2021.
Survey
Election forecasts
The polls predicted a three-way battle between the two pro-independence parties, the ERC, as well as Junts and the social democratic PSC , which campaigns against independence. The strongest in the last election in 2017 party Ciutadans was forecast a strong loss of votes, the first time in the Catalan Parliament would, according to the pollsters, the right party Vox move.
There were also different results on the question of whether the independence advocates or their opponents would win the majority of the parliamentary seats. In the opinion of most institutes, the outcome was open.
course
Results
The turnout was around 53 percent, significantly lower than in the 2017 election, when the turnout was around 79 percent. Three months after the election, the left-wing ERC and the liberal-conservative Junts agreed on an alliance via Catalunya. Together with the left-wing separatist CUP, the separatists have 74 of the 135 seats in parliament in Barcelona. The CUP supports the coalition, but does not want to participate formally in the government.
Parties
Overall result
| Political party | voices | Seats | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| number | % | +/- | number | % | +/- | ||
| Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC-PSOE) | 652.858 | 23.04% | 9.18% | 33 | 24.44% | 16 | |
| Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) | 603,607 | 21.30% | 0.08% | 33 | 24.44% | 1 | |
| Junts per Catalunya (Junts) | 568.002 | 20.04% | 1.61% | 32 | 23.70% | 2 | |
| Vox (Vox) | 217.883 | 7.69% | New | 11 | 8.15% | New | |
| Candidatura d'Unitat Popular - Un nou cicle per guanyar (CUP-G) 1 | 189,087 | 6.67% | 2.21% | 9 | 6.67% | 5 | |
| En Comú Podem (ECP) | 194,626 | 6.87% | 0.59% | 8th | 5.93% | ||
| Ciutadans (C's) | 157.903 | 5.57% | 19.78% | 6th | 4.44% | 30 | |
| Partit Popular (PP) | 109,067 | 3.85% | 0.39% | 3 | 2.22% | 1 | |
| Partit Demòcrata Europeu Català (PDeCAT) | 77.059 | 2.72% | New | - | - | - | |
| Other | 40,033 | 1.40% | 0.96% | - | - | - | |
| Abstentions | 24,021 | 0.84% | 0.40% | - | - | - | |
| total | 2,833,644 | 100.00% | 135 | 100.00% | |||
| Valid votes | 2,833,644 | 98.57% | |||||
| Invalid votes | 40,966 | 1.43% | |||||
| Votes cast | 2,874,610 | 100.00% | |||||
| Number of eligible voters and turnout | 5,623,962 | 51.11% | |||||
| Source: Resultas | |||||||
Provinces
| PSC- PSOE |
ERC- CatSí |
Junts | Vox | CUP- CC |
CC Podem |
Cs | PP | Other | Total seats |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | 25.05% 23 |
20.42% 19 |
17.90% 16 |
7.83% 7 |
6.30% 5 |
7.76% 7 |
6.10% 5 |
4.05% 3 |
4.59% - |
85 |
| Girona | 15.17% 3 |
21.80% 4 |
32.68% 7 |
6.16% 1 |
9.04% 2 |
4.04% - |
3.25% - |
1.99% - |
5.87% - |
17th |
| Lleida | 15.00% 3 |
26.58% 5 |
28.04% 5 |
5.53% 1 |
7.40% 1 |
3.23% - |
3.21% - |
3.54% - |
7.47% - |
15th |
| Tarragona | 20.04% 4 |
24.49% 5 |
19.37% 4 |
9.40% 2 |
6.79% 1 |
4.91% 1 |
5.23% 1 |
4.32% - |
4.32% - |
18th |
| Catalonia (total) | 23.02 33 |
21.31 33 |
20.06 32 |
7.69 11 |
6.68 9 |
6.86 8 |
5.57 6 |
3.85 3 |
4.96 - |
135 |
Attitude to the independence of Catalonia
Overall result
- Pro: 74
- Neutral: 8
- Cons: 53
| Parties | voices | Seats | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| number | % | +/- | number | % | +/- | ||
| Pro-independence (ERC, Junts, CUP, PDeCAT) |
1,437,755 | 50.77% | 3.27% | 74 | 54.81% | 4 | |
| Contra independence (PSC, Vox, Cs, PP) |
1,137,711 | 40.13% | 3.20% | 53 | 39.26% | 4 | |
| Neutral / Unclear (including CatComú – Podem) |
258.680 | 9.10% | 0.10% | 8th | 5.93% | ||
| A total of | 2,834,146 | 100.00% | 135 | 100.00% | |||
Provinces
| Per | Contra | Neutral | Total seats |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | 47.15% 40 |
42.99% 38 |
9.86% 7 |
85 |
| Girona | 66.71% 13 |
26.57% 4 |
6.72% - |
17th |
| Lleida | 66.62% 10 |
27.28% 5 |
6.10% - |
15th |
| Tarragona | 53.71% 10 |
38.99% 7 |
7.30% 1 |
18th |
| Catalonia (total) | 50.77 74 |
40.13 53 |
9.10 8 |
135 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elecciones Catalanes 2021 (Spanish)
- ↑ "Disobedience": Catalonia's Prime Minister Torra has to go. September 28, 2020, accessed February 16, 2021 .
- ↑ Ute Müller Madrid: Quim Torra: Catalonia's Prime Minister is threatened with impeachment. Retrieved February 16, 2021 .
- ^ A b Süddeutsche Zeitung: Catalonia's head of government is removed from office. Retrieved February 16, 2021 .
- ↑ Decreto 147/2020, de 21 de diciembre, de disolución automática del Parlamento de Cataluña y de convocatoria de elecciones. In: Boletín Oficial del Estado. December 22, 2020, accessed January 8, 2021 (Spanish).
- ↑ a b Ralf Streck: Corona is causing elections to be postponed. Retrieved February 16, 2021 .
- ↑ Decreto 1/2021, de 15 de enero, por el que se deja sin efecto la celebración de las elecciones al Parlamento de Cataluña del 14 de febrero de 2021 debido a la crisis sanitaria derivada de la pandemia causada por la COVID-19. In: Website of the Boletín Oficial del Estado . January 15, 2021, accessed January 21, 2021 (Spanish).
- ↑ TSJC, decision of January 22, 2021. In: Junta Electoral Central website . January 22, 2021, accessed February 15, 2021 (Spanish).
- ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Catalonia votes for a majority of separatists | DW | 02/15/2021. Retrieved on February 16, 2021 (German).
- ^ Separatists agree on new government , May 17, 2021.
