Agreeing on a new Catalan president: where are we now?

The Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent is to initiate a new round of talks to choose a candidate for Catalan president on Monday. Yet, as no candidate has the support of all the pro-independence parties, the political stalemate seems far from over.

It’s been two and a half months since the pro-independence parties held on to a parliamentary majority in an election last December—and that is with their most prominent leaders either in jail or seeking refuge from Spanish justice in Belgium.

Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) became the most voted pro-independence ticket, winning 34 seats, closely followed by Esquerra Republicana (ERC) with 32 MPs. The far-left CUP came third with four seats.

After that hard-fought victory, the next step seemed comparatively easy: agreeing on a new president. He or she could then appoint a new government and put an end to months of direct rule by the Spanish government, which took over the Catalan administration after a declaration of independence in October.

Yet, the name of the next head of government in Catalonia does not only depend on the pro-independence parties. The Spanish government has threatened to prolong the takeover if the candidate is facing criminal charges. In total, 28 Catalan leaders are under investigation for their role in the independence bid, with four currently behind bars.

Puigdemont steps aside

Running in the election from Brussels, Carles Puigdemont became the most voted candidate among the pro-independence parties, thus securing the votes he needed to retake his position as Catalan president.

Yet, the Constitutional Court ruled that he could not be sworn in at a distance. Should he return to the country and hand himself over to the authorities, it would be up to the Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena to decide whether he could become the president or not.

Torrent decided to postpone Puigdemont’s investiture debate until it became clear whether he could effectively take up his post. That sparked criticism from Puigdemont’s JxCat ticket and the far-left CUP, which deemed Torrent’s decision as a concession to the Spanish government.

ERC supported party member Torrent, stressing that the priority for the pro-independence parties should be to secure control of the Catalan institutions, rather than prolonging the political clash with Spain.

On Thursday last week, Puigdemont announced that he was temporarily abandoning his bid to reclaim the presidency in order to facilitate the formation of a new government.

Jordi Sànchez, rejected by CUP

In his resignation video, Puigdemont pointed to a successor: Jordi Sànchez, his number two in JxCat. Sànchez has been jailed in Madrid since mid-October. Before joining Puigdemont’s ticket, he was the president of the Catalan National Assembly, one of the most influential grassroots organizations in the independence movement.

The Spanish government warned that a Sànchez presidency would not be accepted, and it urged the pro-independence parties to appoint a head of government free of charges.

While ERC welcomed Puigdemont’s decision to step aside, the party was less than enthusiastic about his proposal to elect Sànchez. A party spokesperson said that the next on the list should be Oriol Junqueras, the party leader, and Puigdemont’s vice president. Junqueras has been in prison since November 2. ERC rectified and pledged to vote for Sànchez—that is, as long as he had CUP’s support.

On Saturday, CUP decided to abstain if Sànchez was voted in as president in the Catalan parliament. The far-left party argued that the JxCat and ERC proposal was “total submission to Spanish legality.”

Without CUP’s support, ERC and JxCat could still go ahead with Sànchez’s election regardless. But that would come at a cost: Puigdemont and Toni Comín, another politician in Belgium, would be forced to resign as MPs and cede their seats to party colleagues, as the Spanish Supreme Court will not allow them to vote at a distance.

A party colleague of Puigdemont’s announced on Sunday that his resignation was not on the table, and urged CUP to avoid a political stalemate that could lead to a new election—and the risk of losing the parliamentary majority to govern Catalonia.

Ciutadans will not seek the election of Arrimadas

Although the unionist Ciutadans party won the most votes in the past election and became the largest party in the chamber with 36 seats, it was a bittersweet victory: the unionist parties combined did not have enough seats to form an alternative government.

The leader of Spain's ruling People's Party in Catalonia has repeatedly urged Ciutadans to seek the support of other parties in the chamber in order to form an alternative coalition. Yet, Ciutadans announced in a recent press conference that Inés Arrimadas, the party leader, would not try to be sworn-in.