Catalonia heads into a 24-hour campaigning blackout on Wednesday on the eve of a knife-edge vote, a potential turning point in the Spanish region’s hotly disputed independence crisis.
Today’s regional election pits leaders of the wealthy northeastern region’s separatist movement against candidates who want to stay part of a unified Spain.
Voters are highly mobilised and a record turnout is expected, but with pro- and anti-independence candidates neck-and-neck in opinion polls neither side is likely to win a clear majority.
The election is being closely watched across a European Union still reeling from Britain’s shock decision to leave and wary about any breakup of the eurozone’s fourth largest economy.
It has inflamed passions not just in Catalonia but across Spain, whose government took the unprecedented step of stripping the region of its autonomy after its parliament declared independence on October 27.
“This is not a normal election,” axed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont told supporters yesterday in a final, virtual rally via videolink from self-imposed exile in Belgium.
“What is at stake is not who gets the most votes, but whether the country (Catalonia) or (Spanish Prime Minister Mariano) Rajoy wins” the standoff, he added.