Catalan separatists vote on far-reaching government deal
BARCELONA, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Grassroots members of Catalonia’s separatist ERC party were voting on Friday on a regional government deal with Spain’s ruling Socialists that could patch up Madrid’s uneasy relations with the region but also impact Spain’s entire fiscal system.
The northeastern region, one of Spain’s wealthiest, has been governed by separatists since 2010. The peak of the independence drive came in 2017, when the Catalan government called a referendum to secede from Spain, deemed illegal by courts and resulting in a short-lived declaration of independence.
The nationalist movement’s influence has since ebbed, failing to garner sufficient backing to form a government in May’s regional election, won by the centre-left Socialists without a working majority.
The only way to avoid a repeat election lies through an agreement between the winning party and the left-wing, separatist ERC, to support Salvador Illa, a Socialist, as head of the regional government.