Pro-Independence party would win elections in Catalonia

For the first time in history, nationalist conservative-liberal alliance CiU could lose regional elections in Catalonia today. According to pollster GESOP's Spring barometer for Barcelona newspaper El Periódico, if elections were to be held on Sunday, ERC would cross a watershed, with a three-point advantage over the nationalists, who would suffer a fresh drain of votes and seats to the Republicans, just six months after the last polls.

The shift in the Catalan political map would make pro-independece leader Oriol Junqueras' party the backbone of the Catalans' struggle for their own state. Left-wing ICV would climb to tie in the progressives' race with socialists PSC, who go on bleeding votes and members without relief and would have no guarantee of taking third place. And in the battle for the essences of Spanish unionism, regional party Ciudadanos is set to equal Spanish PM Rajoy's governing conservative Popular Party.

With this shake-up, the parliamentary bloc that pushed the Catalan Declaration of Sovereignty through in January, which was suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court, is reinforced and clears the psychological barrier of two-thirds of the chamber.

Source: El Periodico