Catalonia swears in new govt, ending separatist rule

Published August 13, 2024
Newly elected Catalonia’s regional government head Salvador Illa speaks on on August 12, 2024 at the Palau de la Generalitat in Barcelona, as the new Government of Catalonia take office. Salvador Illa of Spanish Prime Minister’s Socialists was elected as Catalonia’s new leader on August 8, 2024 — AFP
Newly elected Catalonia’s regional government head Salvador Illa speaks on on August 12, 2024 at the Palau de la Generalitat in Barcelona, as the new Government of Catalonia take office. Salvador Illa of Spanish Prime Minister’s Socialists was elected as Catalonia’s new leader on August 8, 2024 — AFP

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.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024

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