Member of the European Parliament and Catalan politician Josep-Maria Terricabras told Sputnik that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was unlikely to change his already arrogant attitude toward Catalonia's pro-independence parties for the worse following his party's victory in last week's elections
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th May, 2019) Member of the European Parliament and Catalan politician Josep-Maria Terricabras told Sputnik that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was unlikely to change his already arrogant attitude toward Catalonia's pro-independence parties for the worse following his party's victory in last week's elections.On Sunday, Spain voted in elections to the European Parliament, as well as regional and local offices. According to preliminary results, Sanchez's Socialist Workers' Party improved its positions both at the national and European level.
"It shows the politics led by anger, frustration and aggressivity is not working ... I don't think the good results of Pedro Sanchez will make him more arrogant with the Catalan independence parties. I believe that mutual freedom will function for the time being," Terricabras said.
The politician added that despite Sanchez's success, Catalan pro-independence parties managed to win in the region's capital for the first time in nearly a century.
"For the Catalan parties, something extraordinary happened, the Republican sovereigntists won in Barcelona, for the first time in 90 years, ousting the mayor Ada Colau Ballano," the lawmaker said.
According to Terricabras, the conservative People's Party retained power in the City Council of Madrid, the capital's governing body, thanks to the Vox right-wing party, but Vox itself performed worse than expected in the European elections.
"They [Vox] get the members of the European parliament, a good result but far from what was expected. Ciudadanos [center-right party Citizens], the liberals had a good result, as expected, while Podemos [party] is also performing badly," the European lawmaker added.
Catalonia has been striving to secede from Spain for decades. Its most recent attempt to become independent came in the form of a referendum in 2017. The regional government later proclaimed Catalonia's independence based on the results of the vote, which the Spanish government refused to accept.
