Moderate separatist elected regional Catalan president

Moderate Catalan separatist Pere Aragones was elected president of the disputed region on Friday after a parliamentary vote by local MPs.

The 38-year-old lawyer has called on Madrid to organise an independence referendum for Catalonia, which failed a 2017 bid to split from Spain, triggering a political crisis.

The regional “government aims to ensure that the independence of Catalonia is possible”, he said Friday before his election.

“Now, we must resolve this political conflict through dialogue, negotiation… we will push ahead with negotiations, which will not be easy.”

In addition to an independence referendum, he said he wants amnesty for exiled or jailed leaders of the separatist movement.

Both options have been roundly rejected by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government.

Frozen since the coronavirus pandemic began, negotiations on defusing Catalonia’s impasse appear jammed, with Madrid refusing to bow to separatist demands for another referendum.

Unlike the Together for Catalonia (JxC) party of former regional president Carles Puigdemont, Aragones’ leftist ERC party has advocated a more moderate approach to independence based on negotiation with Madrid.

Earlier this week, ERC and JxC overcame their differences and struck a deal to renew the coalition that has governed the wealthy northern region since 2015.

A poll this month showed slipping support for the separatist movement, over which the region remains deeply divided.