Formal victory of Catalan nationalists

Catalan nationalists have formally won the regional parliamentary elections. However, they not only were not able to get the absolute majority, but also lost the seats they had already. Party “Convergence and Union” could enlist the support of only slightly more than 30 percent of voters and got 50 out of 135 seats in the local parliament. This is much less than was predicted by the separatist leader Artur Mas. At the same time the traditional allies of the nationalists – Left Republicans have had a great success. They received twice as many mandates as they had in the previous parliament and this somewhat, though not completely, compensated for the loss of the “Convergence and Union.” Spain’s ruling Popular Party was only in the fourth place, but the leader of its local branch Alicia Camacho believes that the failure of the “Convergence” is yet a big success. “The separatists have failed because the Assembly today has even less nationalist deputies than there was two years ago. They lost two seats. That’s what Arthur Mas is worth,” stressed Camacho. According to Euronews, before the elections political analysts called them the dress rehearsal for the vote on self-determination referendum. At the highest turnout in 15 years the separatists admitted that their expectations were in discord with the reality of the crisis time.