Mariano Rajoy has lost the "referendum" which he called in the form of an election to the Catalan Parliament to validate at the polls the new political order he had imposed on Catalonia via article 155. The independence parties have humiliated the Spanish prime minister in the most abnormal election in the history of Catalonia.
The president, Carles Puigdemont, in exile in Brussels, candidate for president for Junts per Catalunya and the vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, head of the ERC list, have been ratified at the polls with a new pro-independence majority completed by CUP. And they've overcome the victory in votes and seats, as historic as it is pyrrhic, of Inés Arrimadas and her Ciutadans party.
With 98.58% of the vote counted, Cs are the largest party with 37 deputies and 25.34% of the votes; JuntsXCat are second with 34 seats and 21.69%, followed by ERC with 32 and 21.41%; PSC is fourth with 17 deputies and 13.86%; Catalunya En Comú-Podem get 8 seats and 7.44%; CUP, 4 deputies with 4.45% and PP are last with 3 deputies and 4.23%. For PP, this is their worst result in the Catalan Parliament yet.
In agreement with these provisional results, the pro-independence parties, JuntsXCat, ERC and CUP, together total 70 deputies, 2 more than an absolute majority. On the other hand, the pro-union parties, Cs, PSC and PP, are far from reaching that point with 57, 11 too few. Between the two extremes, Catalunya En Comú-Podem sit on 8.
Arrimadas won't be president
Cs, the largest party, climb from 25 to 36 deputies. JuntsXCat and ERC get 66, whilst their Junts per Sí coalition got 62 in 2015. CUP, on the other hand, headed by Carles Riera, suffer a serious setback, falling from 10 to 4.
PSC don't see their expectations of growth confirmed, with Miquel Iceta only managing to add 1 seat to the 16 he already had. Catalunya En Comú-Podem, led by Xavier Domènech, fall three deputies short of the 11 won by Lluís Rabell in 2015 with Catalunya Sí Que Es Pot. And the PP suffers a historic blow: Xavier García Albiol has dropped to 4 from the 11 deputies they got in the last election.