This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Catalan parliament has narrowly elected a hardline secessionist as president, presaging the end of 199 days of direct rule from Madrid.

Quim Torra, an uncompromisingly pro-independence MP who joined parliament six months ago, was elected by 66 votes to 65.

Q&A Why does the Spanish government say the Catalan referendum is illegal? Show Hide The Spanish government argues that any referendum on Catalan independence would be illegal because the country’s 1978 constitution makes no provision for a vote on self-determination. The Spanish constitutional court, which has suspended the referendum law pushed through the Catalan parliament in September, is looking into whether the law breaches the constitution. In March this year, the former Catalan president Artur Mas was banned from holding public office for two years after being found guilty of disobeying the constitutional court by holding a symbolic independence referendum three years ago.

He is the first candidate to be approved by the body since Carles Puigdemont’s administration was sacked seven months ago, when the Spanish government used the constitution to assume control of Catalonia and call last December’s regional election.

The Madrid government has said it will cease using article 155 of the constitution – which had never been invoked until last year – when a new Catalan government was in place.

Torra is the anointed successor to Puigdemont, who has been in self-imposed exile since October, first in Brussels and now in Berlin, where he awaits the German court’s decision on Spain’s extradition request on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds.



Puigdemont and the other politicians who have either fled abroad or been imprisoned were able to vote by proxy.



Torra’s candidacy has been met with little enthusiasm and he only secured the simple majority required thanks to the anti-capitalist CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy) whose four MPs abstained despite Carles Riera, the party spokesman, describing Torra as a “neo-liberal capitalist”.



Riera later said the CUP would not support Torra’s government because it was not “advocating disobedience and confrontation”.



During his investiture speech, Torra said the true president is Puigdemont, who fled the country shortly after the unilateral declaration of independence last October. Puigdemont, who was re-elected in absentia in December, has indicated that he may call fresh elections within a year, so Torra may have a brief political shelf life.



Torra offered dialogue while vowing to pursue the goals of the pro-independence minority and to make the republic declared in October a reality. “Defending the republic means defending every one of us,” he said.



Speaking for the Republican Left party, Sergi Sabrià issued a call to work “on every democratic front, to expand the social base, the internationalisation of the cause, to mobilise in the street” and “to form a government to bring about the republic”.



Sabrià thanked the new president for his willingness to achieve consensus and represent all Catalans, although Torra’s hostility to all things Spanish is a matter of record.



Torra apologised for Tweets in which he described the Spanish people as shameless and capable only of exploitation. He had also said he did not understand why anyone in Catalonia would choose to speak Spanish.



More than 60% of Catalans have a Spanish mother or father, or both, and according to the Catalan government’s own polling about 43% cite Spanish as their mother tongue.



Responding to Torra’s investiture speech, Inés Arrimadas, the leader of the Citizens party, said: “The electoral law gives them a majority they don’t have at the ballot box,” adding that “fighting nationalism in 21st-century Europe isn’t an option, it’s an obligation”.



Eva Granados, the Socialist party spokeswoman, described Torra as “a supremacist ultranationalist” who hates half of the population whom he intended to govern.



Catalonia has been without its own government for seven months, so Monday’s decision represents the beginning of a return to normality.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Carles Puigdemont in the Catalan parliament in September 2016, before he was ousted by the Spanish government. Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

However, with a hardliner leading a secessionist coalition intent on pursuing the same goals that provoked Spain’s constitutional crisis, reconciliation between Madrid and Barcelona, or within what is now a deeply polarised Catalan society, looks as remote as ever.

Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, is to meet the leader of the opposition Socialist party on Tuesday to discuss the Catalan situation.

Rajoy has again hinted he could once again resort to using article 155 to impose direct rule if Torra tried to press ahead with independence.

“[Article] 155 isn’t an article of the constitution any more: it’s a precedent and a procedure that will be available in future if it becomes necessary,” he said on Friday.

“I hope it will not become necessary again.”

