The Parliament of Catalonia, in Barcelona.
Barcelona:
Spain’s ruling Socialists regained control of Catalonia’s regional government as a new cabinet was sworn in on Monday, ending over a decade of separatist rule in the region.
The 16-member cabinet is led by Salvador Illa, who was Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I want to assure you that the government will govern for all, this is a real obsession,” Illa said during the swearing-in ceremony.
It is the first time since 2010 that the wealthy northeastern region has a government that does not come from the pro-independence camp.
The Socialists won the most seats in a regional election in May, but fell short of a majority.
Illa secured the support of the tiny far-left Comuns party — part of the Sumar alliance that backs Sanchez at national level — and moderate separatist ERC party to become regional leader in a vote on Thursday in Catalonia’s regional assembly.
Forming a government in Catalonia will be seen as a vindication of Sanchez’s strategy of trying to tamp down support for separatism in the region by offering concessions, including a controversial amnesty for those involved in an illegal independence referendum in 2017 that triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.
To secure the support of the ERC, the Socialists vowed to grant Catalonia full control of taxes collected in the region, which has been for decades one of the main demands of pro-independence parties.
The proposal, which still must be approved by Spain’s national parliament, is opposed by the conservative opposition as well as some in the Socialist party, who argue it will deprive the central state of a substantial revenues.
Last week’s vote was overshadowed by fugitive separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, who defied a pending arrest warrant over his role in the 2017 secession bid, to appear at a Barcelona rally after seven years of self-imposed exile, and then vanished before police could arrest him.
He has returned to Belgium, where he has lived during most of the years since leaving Spain.
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