2021 Catalan regional election
A regional election was held in Catalonia on Sunday, 14 February 2021, to elect the 13th/14th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.
After the 2017 election, pro-Catalan independence parties secured a parliamentary majority, electing Quim Torra as new Catalan president after attempts to have Carles Puigdemont and Jordi Turull elected to the office were foiled by Spanish courts. However, in December 2019 Torra was disqualified by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia from holding any elected office and/or from exercising government powers for disobeying the Central Electoral Commission 's rulings in the April 2019 Spanish general election campaign. Torra remained as president as he appealed the ruling, but was stripped from his status as legislator in the Catalan parliament. A snap election loomed over the horizon for several months as Torra announced his will to call one after the court rulings, but the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain stalled these plans. On 28 September 2020, the TSJC's ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court of Spain, finally disqualifying Torra from office and paving the way for a regional election to be called for early 2021.
Puigdemont announced his intention to lead the lists of his new Together for Catalonia party into the election, with former regional Culture minister Laura Borràs being selected as presidential candidate. Concurrently, in a move widely seen as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's personal bet for his party to obtain a strong performance in the election, the Socialists' Party of Catalonia selected health minister Salvador Illa, who had been at the helm of the Spanish government's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as its leading candidate.
Pro-independence parties gained a majority of the votes for the first time in an election and increased their parliamentary majority, though they lost over 600,000 votes from the previous election amidst the lowest voter turnout in history, at just 51.3%. The PSC under Salvador Illa emerged as the most voted political party while tying in seats as the largest parliamentary force for the first time in history. The far-right Vox placed fourth and entered Parliament for first time, winning 11 seats, to the collapse of both Citizens and the People's Party. The Catalan European Democratic Party, the successor of the once-dominant Democratic Convergence of Catalonia, lost parliamentary representation after they failed to clear the electoral threshold. PDeCAT's extraparliamentary performance partially overturned the record for wasted votes that had been set by CDC's erstwhile coalition partner, the Democratic Union of Catalonia, in 2015.
Overview
Under the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of Catalonia was the unicameral legislature of the homonymous autonomous community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a regional president. As a result of no regional electoral law having been approved since the re-establishment of Catalan autonomy, the electoral procedure came regulated under transitory provisions, supplemented by the provisions within the national electoral law.Electoral system
Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Catalonia and in full enjoyment of their political rights, provided that they were not sentenced—by a final court ruling—to deprivation of the right to vote. Additionally, Spaniards abroad were required to apply for voting before being permitted to vote, a system known as "begged" or expat vote.The Parliament of Catalonia was entitled to a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 150 seats, with electoral provisions setting its size at 135. All members were elected in four multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, with each being allocated a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with a threshold of three percent of valid votes being applied in each constituency. The use of the electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:
| Seats | Constituencies |
| 85 | Barcelona |
| 18 | Tarragona |
| 17 | Girona |
| 15 | Lleida |
The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacated seats; instead, any vacancies that occurred after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes.
Election date
The term of the Parliament of Catalonia expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the scheduled date of expiry of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of the Government of Catalonia, with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication. The previous election was held on 21 December 2017, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 21 December 2021. The election decree was required to be published in the DOGC no later than 27 November 2021, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible date for election day on Thursday, 20 January 2022.The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Catalonia and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since a previous one under this procedure. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called.
On 29 January 2020, President Quim Torra announced that he would be calling a snap election at some point throughout 2020 once the budgetary procedure was finalized in Parliament, after a government crisis erupted between Together for Catalonia and Republican Left of Catalonia over Torra's being stripped of his status as legislator, resulting from a court ruling for disobeying the Central Electoral Commission by not withdrawing partisan symbols from the Palau de la Generalitat's facade and not guaranteeing the institution's neutrality during the April 2019 Spanish general election campaign.
While the budget's parliamentary transaction timetable was due to be over by 18 March —members from both Junts and ERC hinted that the election could be delayed until after the summer, to be held in September–October 2020. The risk existed that, in the meantime, the Supreme Court issued a firm ruling on Torra's disqualification that removed him from the president's office and thus deprived him of the prerogative of parliament dissolution. The announcement of a possible snap 2020 election in Catalonia had the immediate side effect of triggering an early election in the Basque Country for 5 April, as Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu sought to distance himself from the convoluted Catalan political landscape by avoiding any interference with the Basque election, which was initially not scheduled until autumn 2020. This in turn precipitated the end of the legislature in Galicia, with regional president Alberto Núñez Feijóo announcing a snap election to be held simultaneously with the Basque one.
In July 2020, it was revealed that former Catalan president and Torra's predecessor Carles Puigdemont initially sought to have the election being held on 4 October 2020, in order for his upcoming political party to benefit from the pro-independence nostalgia of the Diada and the third anniversary of the independence referendum, which would require the Parliament to be dissolved on 12 August. However, severe COVID-19 outbreaks in the Lleida/Segrià and Barcelona metropolitan areas in mid-July forced these plans to be delayed. Torra's disqualification was confirmed in late September. The Catalan parliament chose not to appoint a replacement candidate for the regional presidency, with a parliamentary act being published on 21 October confirming such situation and starting the two month-legally established timetable until the automatic dissolution of the chamber and the election being scheduled to be held on 14 February 2021. Eventually on 21 December, acting president Pere Aragonès signed the decree dissolving the Parliament of Catalonia. The Parliament of Catalonia was officially dissolved on 22 December 2020 with the publication of the dissolution decree in the DOGC, setting election day for 14 February.
As a result of the worsening situation in Catalonia and in all of Spain because of mounting cases and deaths in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the election date was initially postponed to 30 May 2021. However, after a legal challenge over perceived irregularities in the decree, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia decided on 19 January to suspend the postponement and move the election back to the original 14 February date. This decision was confirmed on 21 January.
Outgoing parliament
The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.Parties and candidates
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. Concurrently, parties, federations or alliances that had not obtained a parliamentary mandate at the preceding election were required to secure the signature of at least 0.1 percent of electors in the aforementioned constituencies. Additionally, a balanced composition of men and women was required in the electoral lists, so that candidates of either sex made up at least 40 percent of the total composition.Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:
With the growing likelihood of a snap election from early 2020 onwards, speculation arose that both Citizens and the People's Party would try to form a Navarra Suma-inspired electoral alliance of "constitutionalist" political forces. Far-right party Vox discarded itself from joining any such coalition and announced that it would run on its own instead. On 31 January 2020, Cs spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies Inés Arrimadas hinted at the possibility of such agreement being exported to Galicia and the Basque Country as well under the "Better United" umbrella, excluding Vox from such arrangement. However, the heavy defeat of the PP+Cs formula in the 12 July Basque election sparked doubts within the regional PP's branch over the electoral viability of such an alliance in Catalonia. Finally, with the snap election being confirmed for 14 February 2021, it was announced that no such alliance would be formed, after the Socialists' Party of Catalonia had declined a similar offer from Cs to join into such a platform.
In July 2020, following the failure of negotiations between the Catalan European Democratic Party and former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont for the reorganization of the post-convergent space under the Together for Catalonia umbrella because of the former's refusal to dissolve itself as a party, Puigdemont announced the founding of a new personalist party ahead of the upcoming regional election, wrestling control over the JuntsxCat's brand away from the PDeCAT for his own use, and breaking all ties with his former party. The new party, a new Together for Catalonia which would advocate for the goal of achieving unilateral independence, was to be formed by the merger of the National Call for the Republic, Action for the Republic and splinter elements from the PDeCAT. JxCat's formation process was started on 18 July with the public presentation of its imagery. By mid-to-late July, Puigdemont's allies had been publicly calling for disgruntled members within a deeply-fractured PDeCAT to join their new JxCat party upon its founding congress, leading Independence Rally to forfeit its collaboration agreement with the former, which it had maintained since 2013. From 29 August onwards and starting with the party's five senators, members from the PDeCAT aligned to Puigdemont started defecting en masse from the former, in response to it announcing a formal sue on Puigdemont for taking over the JxCat's brand, with Puigdemont himself forfeiting his PDeCAT membership on 31 August. That same day, 9 out of the 14 remaining PDeCAT MPs in the Parliament of Catalonia left the party to join JxCat.
The crisis within the post-convergent political space had also seen the founding of a new party, the Nationalist Party of Catalonia, from splinter elements of the PDeCAT opposing the idea of unilateral independence and disenchanted with Puigdemont's growing influence, with former coordinator-general Marta Pascal at its helm. On 15 July 2020, it was announced that several parties resulting from the Convergence and Union break up, namely Free, Convergents and Democratic League, had agreed to form an electoral alliance ahead of the upcoming regional election, with the PNC and Ramon Espadaler's United to Advance, until then allied to the PSC, considering joining the new coalition as well. On 23 July, Lliures, CNV and LD announced the creation of a joint commission to begin the drafting of a future electoral programme and invited Units, the PNC and the "moderate" sectors still in the PDeCAT, who favoured an alliance outside of Puigdemont's sphere of influence, to join into "a broad centre alternative that included Catalanists and sovereignists." By November 2020, Units, Lliures and LD were said to be favouring an electoral agreement with the PSC instead, advocating for the establishment of a "broad Catalanist front". However, eventually, a global agreement was not reached and PSC and Units renewed their electoral alliance without Lliures and LD.
Former Prime Minister of France Manuel Valls, who had run in the 2019 Barcelona municipal election within Cs's lists and had broken up with Albert Rivera's party shortly afterwards, was also said to be considering launching his own bid for the regional election, but Arrimadas's appointment as Cs leader hinted at the possibility of both parties mending their ties and exploring a joint platform. By October 2020, Valls was reportedly uninterested in Catalan politics and was said to be planning a return to French politics, to be officialized after the 14 February regional election.
In a surprise move on 30 December 2020, PSC leader Miquel Iceta announced that he would be stepping down as his party's leading candidate in the election, instead proposing incumbent Health minister Salvador Illa, who had borne the brunt of the Spanish government's management of the COVID-19 pandemic, for the post. The move was interpreted as a high-risk gamble from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, and from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in particular, to push for PSC's outright win in the regional election and put an end to the bloc politics that had settled down in Catalonia for the previous decade. The same day, former Cs candidate and party spokesperson in the Spanish Senate, Lorena Roldán, announced that she was defecting from the party to join the PP lists.
Timetable
The key dates are listed below :- 21 December: The election decree is issued with the countersign of the acting president.
- 22 December: Formal dissolution of parliament and start of prohibition period on the inauguration of public works, services or projects.
- 25 December: Initial constitution of provincial and zone electoral commissions with judicial members.
- 28 December: Division of constituencies into polling sections and stations.
- 1 January: Deadline for parties and federations to report on their electoral alliances.
- 4 January: Deadline for electoral register consultation for the purpose of possible corrections.
- 11 January: Deadline for parties, federations, alliances, and groupings of electors to present electoral lists.
- 13 January: Publication of submitted electoral lists in the Official Journal of the Government of Catalonia.
- .
- 16 January: Deadline for non-resident citizens to apply for voting.
- 18 January: Official proclamation of validly submitted electoral lists.
- 19 January: Publication of proclaimed electoral lists in the DOGC.
- 20 January: Deadline for the selection of polling station members by sortition.
- 28 January: Deadline for the appointment of non-judicial members to provincial and zone electoral commissions.
- 29 January: Official start of electoral campaigning.
- 4 February: Deadline to apply for postal voting.
- 9 February: Start of legal ban on electoral opinion polling publication; deadline for CERA citizens to vote by mail.
- 10 February: Deadline for postal and temporarily absent voting.
- 12 February: Last day of electoral campaigning; deadline for CERA voting.
- 13 February: Official election silence.
- 14 February: Election day ; provisional vote counting.
- 17 February: Start of general vote counting, including CERA votes.
- 20 February: Deadline for the general vote counting.
- 1 March: Deadline for the proclamation of elected members.
- 10 April: Deadline for the publication of definitive election results in the DOGC.
Opinion polls
The tables below list opinion polling results in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll.Voting intention estimates
The table below lists weighted voting intention estimates. Refusals are generally excluded from the party vote percentages, while question wording and the treatment of "don't know" responses and those not intending to vote may vary between polling organisations. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below the percentages in a smaller font; 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.Voting preferences
The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.Victory preferences
The table below lists opinion polling on the victory preferences for each party in the event of a regional election taking place.| Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Other/ None | Lead | ||||||||||
| Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Other/ None | Lead | ||||||||||
| CIS | 1–3 Feb 2021 | 1,838 | 3.9 | 16.3 | 19.7 | 5.0 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 9.6 | 1.1 | 11.9 | 24.2 | 3.4 |
| CIS | 2–15 Jan 2021 | 4,106 | 5.0 | 16.8 | 19.0 | 4.4 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 1.6 | 8.7 | 0.4 | 9.6 | 28.8 | 2.2 |
Victory likelihood
The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood of victory for each party in the event of a regional election taking place.| Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Other/ None | Lead | ||||||||||
| Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Other/ None | Lead | ||||||||||
| CIS | 1–3 Feb 2021 | 1,838 | 0.4 | 32.6 | 17.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 8.2 | 0.3 | 2.4 | 37.1 | 14.9 |
| GESOP/El Periódico | 25–28 Jan 2021 | 1,445 | – | 28.3 | 24.9 | – | – | – | – | 7.2 | – | 1.1 | 38.4 | 3.4 |
| CIS | 2–15 Jan 2021 | 4,106 | 0.4 | 46.2 | 8.6 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 7.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 34.4 | 37.6 |
| GESOP/El Periódico | 4–7 Jan 2021 | 801 | 0.3 | 45.3 | 11.3 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 8.1 | 0.4 | – | 33.1 | 34.0 |