Catalonia’s separatist president, Quim Torra, has announced he will call an early regional election amid growing divisions and deteriorating relations between the two pro-independence parties in his coalition government.

In an address that laid bare the splits between his centre-right Together for Catalonia party and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), Torra said: “No government can work without unity and without a shared, common strategy and loyalty between partners.”

He said an election would be called once the regional parliament had approved this year’s budget – a process that could take months and result in a May or June poll.

The two parties have very different views over the best way to achieve independence from Spain. Together for Catalonia favours keeping tensions high to maintain the pressure on the central government, while the ERC advocates a more pragmatic and measured approach.

The situation came to a head on Monday when the ERC refused to support Torra’s attempts to retain his voting rights after he was stripped of his status as a regional MP by Spain’s electoral board for refusing to remove pro-independence symbols from public buildings during the campaign for April’s general election.

“This legislature has no political path left; it’s reached its end,” Torra said as he announced the poll. “We’ve seen this week that as partners we are approaching along the road to independence in a way that has damaged mutual confidence.”

The regional government of Torra’s predecessor and close ally, Carles Puigdemont, staged a failed attempt to secede from Spain in the autumn of 2017, when it held a unilateral and illegal independence referendum, which it followed with a unilateral declaration of independence.

The Spanish government responded by sacking Puigdemont – who subsequently fled to Belgium to avoid arrest – seizing control of Catalonia and calling a snap regional election.

However, the gamble failed after the three pro-independence parties retained their absolute majority in the 135-seat regional parliament.

In October last year, Spain’s supreme court jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders over their roles in the push for independence. The verdict provoked a furious response from many Catalans, and led to days of violent clashes on the streets of Barcelona and other areas.

The results of the forthcoming regional election will be keenly monitored in Madrid. The coalition government led by Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was able to take power only after the ERC agreed to abstain from an investiture vote earlier this month in return for talks to find a political solution to the territorial crisis.

Sánchez and Torra are due to meet in Barcelona next week for the first round of talks on the issue.

Catalonia remains fairly evenly split over the question of independence. Pro-independence parties have never managed to take 50% of the vote in regional elections. Meanwhile, popular support for seceding from Spain – which reached a record high of 48.7% in October 2017 – is at 43.7%, with 47.9% of Catalans opposed to it.

• This article was amended on February 3, 2020. An earlier version said the regional government had 170 seats. This has now been corrected.



