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The plan to hold an election in 2015 was announced on January 15, 2015 by PresidentArtur Mas. President Mas said that it was his intention to turn the election into an alternative vote on the independence of Catalonia, with pro-independence parties including the independence process in their respective programs, due to the inability of holding a legal referendum on the issue.[1]
The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia are elected in 4 multi-member districts, corresponding to Catalonia's four provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-listproportional representation. As the community did not have an electoral law of its own passed into law at the time of the 2015 election, the electoral system came regulated under the community's Statute of Autonomy rules, and under the Spanish general electoral law (Organic Law 5/1985, of the General Electoral Regime). As a result of the lack of an autonomous electoral law, seats were allocated to districts through specific Laws or Decrees for each election. The common seat distribution is as follows: Barcelona (85), Girona (17), Lleida (15) and Tarragona (18).
After the 2012 parliamentary election resulted in Convergence and Union (CiU) unexpectedly losing seats, President Mas was placed in a difficult political position, as he fell 18 seats short of the absolute majority. He was forced to sign an agreement with Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), in which the latter pledged to support the government, albeit without entering a formal coalition, in return for a faster process to obtain the independence of Catalonia.
On 23 January 2013, the Parliament of Catalonia adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty and of the Right to Decide of the Catalan People, which stated that "The people of Catalonia have – by reason of democratic legitimacy – the character of a sovereign political and legal entity." This declaration was provisionally suspended by the Constitutional Court of Spain on 8 May 2013, and on 25 March 2014 the same court declared that it was void and unconstitutional.[6] At the same time, opinion polls began to show ERC topping the voters' preferences for the first time since the 1932 Catalan election, with the CiU vote declining as a result of the 2012 election backlash, but also because of Mas' management of the economic crisis and the involvement of several CiU leading figures in several corruption scandals. Among those involved was party founder Jordi Pujol i Soley, charged in a tax fraud scandal related to an undeclared inheritance in Andorra, accompanied by allegations of bribery, embezzlement, breach of trust, influence peddling, forgery of documents and money laundering crimes allegedly committed during his time as President of Catalonia.[7]
On 12 December 2013, the Government of Catalonia announced that a non-binding referendum on the independence issue would be held on 9 November 2014, for the purpose of giving independence leaders a political mandate to negotiate with the Spanish Government.[8]Mariano Rajoy's government stated shortly after its intention to block such a referendum, which it considered illegal and not within the competences of the autonomous community.[9] In spite of this, the referendum was held as scheduled, with over 80% voting for independence, albeit on a low turnout of around 40%. Independence parties considered the result a success, with CiU recovering in opinion polls made after the vote. Artur Mas explained in a public act on 25 November his plan to reach independence, proposing calling an extraordinary parliamentary election — turned into an alternative and legal vote on independence — at some point during 2015, on the condition that ERC agreed to join a common list with his party to stand together at the polls. ERC leader Oriol Junqueras agreed with most of the plan but refused such a joint list, threatening to break its government pact with CiU in order to force an election in early 2015.[10][11] Both parties finally reached an agreement, and, on 26 January 2015, Mas announced that a snap parliamentary election would probably be held on 27 September that same year.[1]
Tension within both parties forming the Convergence and Union federation had reached an all-time high in June 2015 due to differences between the positions the Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC) leadership and Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) leader Artur Mas took over the sovereignty process. CDC was in favour of outright independence even if it meant breaking the established Spanish legality, while UDC was against doing it without the acceptance of the Spanish government. As a result, a referendum of UDC members was held on 14 June 2015, asking whether UDC should commit itself to continue with the process but with certain conditions, including not violating the legality in force through unilateral independence declarations or starting constituent processes at the margin of legal norms.[12][13] Such a position, supported by UDC leaders and contrary to the signed agreements between CDC, ERC and sovereignty entities, was approved by UDC members with an adjusted 50.9%.[14] After this, meetings between UDC and CDC leaders led to an ultimatum from CDC to UDC for the latter to decide within "two or three days" whether it committed itself to the independence plan.[15] On 17 June, after a meeting of the UDC leadership, it was announced that UDC was withdrawing all three of its members from the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia, although they agreed to maintain parliamentary stability until the end of the legislature.[16] That same day at night, the CDC National Executive Committee met and in a press conference the next day confirmed that UDC and CDC would not stand together in the 2015 regional election, and that the political project of the CiU federation was over, spelling the end of 37 years of cooperation between both parties as Convergence and Union.[17][18]
By mid-July 2015, negotiations between CDC, ERC and the pro-independence entities ANC and Òmnium had led to an agreement for a joint pro-independence list (Junts pel Sí, Catalan for Together for Yes) to be formed for the 2015 regional election.[19] The agreement, approved by both the CDC and ERC leaderships, agreed for the list to be headed by three independent figures: Raül Romeva, former European MP for ICV who had left the party for not supporting independence; Carme Forcadell, former ANC president and Muriel Casals, Òmnium chairman. Artur Mas and Oriol Junqueras would follow in 4th and 5th place,[20][21] but with Artur Mas leading the coalition as its presidential nominee.[22]
The coalition was thus scheduled to comprise the ruling center-right Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC), its supporting center-left partner in Parliament, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), Democrats of Catalonia (DC; a pro-independence split from UDC) and Left Movement (MES; split from PSC),[23] as well as members from the pro-independence sectors of the civil society and the symbolic support of former FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.[24]
The Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), while also invited to join the unitary list, refused on the grounds that "it was formed by politicians" (in reference to CDC and ERC's strong presence in the coalition's lists) and decided to stand separately.[25]
After the success of Ada Colau's Barcelona en Comú platform in the 2015 Barcelona City Council election, the member parties of BC Podemos, ICV and EUiA entered talks on the idea of forming a similar, region-wide coalition for the September election in order to stand as an alternative to Mas' independence plan.[26][27] By 15 July 2015, negotiations between the parties were already close to success, and it was agreed that they would stand together in the Catalonia Yes we Can electoral platform.[28][29] On 23 July, the platform presented Lluís Rabell as their candidate for the regional Presidency,[30] while ecologist party Equo announced its intention to join the coalition on 29 July.[31]
^It was confirmed by Together for Yes leaders that, while Raül Romeva, Carme Forcadell and Muriel Casals would be placed ahead in the coalition list for the district of Barcelona, Artur Mas would nonetheless be the force's presidential candidate, and would be re-elected to the office in the event of winning a majority in the new Parliament.[22]
^ abcdefJxSí results are compared to the CDC and ERC totals in the 2012 election. If compared to the sum of CiU and ERC, then the change would be a drop of 9 seats and 4.9 pp in votes.
^ abcdefghijkDue to impossibility of direct comparison due to the dissolution of CiU, the political alliance between CDC and UDC in the 1978–2015 period, an unofficial comparison is calculated using the strength ratio (37:13) of both parties in Parliament after the 2012 election.
^ abcdefCSQEP results are compared to the ICV-EUiA totals in the 2012 election.