Catalonia’s government on brink of collapse

Catalonia’s government is on the brink of collapse after the president fired his deputy in the face of bitter disagreements about how to pursue the fight for independence.

Nearly five years after the region’s disputed independence referendum, Pere Aragonès sacked his vice-president, the head of the junior coalition partner, after the party accused Aragonès of not doing enough for the separatist cause.

Both coalition partners support independence for the wealthy Spanish region, but Aragonès has infuriated his hardline counterparts by taking a more moderate approach, including opening talks with the central government on resolving differences with Madrid.

The referendum on October 1 2017, which was declared illegal by Spain’s top court, triggered a national crisis and unified separatists against Madrid after the central government rejected it and sent in police from other parts of the country to disrupt voting.

But in the years since, the independence movement has fractured as the prospect of secession has diminished.

Together for Catalonia, the party of the sacked vice-president Jordi Puigneró, began an emergency meeting on Thursday to decide its next move.

In a statement on Puigneró’s sacking, the party said: “This historic mistake endangers the future of the independence movement.”

Jordi Turull, its secretary-general, told a Catalan radio station: “With yesterday’s decision, we feel quite expelled from the government.”

If Together decides to formally pull out of the Catalan coalition, there is no guarantee new elections would be called because Aragonès and other political leaders have signalled they believe the surging cost of living and energy crisis make it the wrong time for a vote.

Instead, Aragonès’s Republican Catalan Left (ERC) could continue to rule in a minority government, but one that would struggle to gather enough votes to pass legislation, including a new budget seen as essential to combating the effects of rampant inflation.

Puigneró’s sacking was triggered by Together’s threat to call a vote of confidence against Aragonès over his perceived failure to deliver on promises made when he became president in May 2021, including setting out “a strategic path towards independence”. If Aragonès lost such a vote, he would resign.

Aragonès said late on Wednesday that he wanted Together to “continue in the government” and expressed hope that the party would appoint a new vice-president who can “rebuild confidence” with ERC.

In the 2017 referendum the Catalan government said 90 per cent of the 2.3mn votes cast were for independence, but only about 40 per cent of eligible voters took part.

The latest opinion polls indicate that a majority of Catalans do not want to break away from Spain. Fifty-two per cent of people were against independence and 41 per cent in favour, according to a September survey by the Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió, the official Catalan polling agency.