CATALONIA
Madrid's plan to regain power backfires, as Catalonia secessionists win elections
Catalan pro-independence parties won an absolute majority in snap
elections Thursday, with a record 81 percent turnout. The election
handed a mandate back to the region's ousted separatist leaders, two of
whom campaigned from exile and behind bars. But the pro-Spain centrist
Ciudadanos party also claimed victory, as it became the single biggest
political group with 36 seats – at the cost of its allies, the People’s
Party of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the Catalan Socialist
Party.
Supporters of Catalan independence on the streets of Barcelona on 21 December 2017
Reuters/Albert Gea
