Separatists Defend Majority in Catalan Election

Separatist parties still have a majority, but the independence crisis has split Catalonia down the middle.

The palace of the Catalan regional government in Barcelona, Spain, September 26, 2012
The palace of the Catalan regional government in Barcelona, Spain, September 26, 2012 (Wikimedia Commons/Andriy Sadivskyy)
  • Separatists defended their majority in Catalonia on Thursday.
  • Parties that want to secede from Spain won seventy out of 135 seats in the regional parliament against 57 for the unionists.
  • The remaining eight seats went to Catalonia in Common, a left-wing party that rejects both independence and Spain’s suspension of Catalan home rule.