Spain: Catalan premier elections could resolve many political problems - ING

Steven Trypsteen, Economist at ING, suggests that five months after the elections, Catalonia has a president, which could settle many big political questions in Spain.

Key Quotes

“The pressure to select somebody was increasing over the past few weeks. If no president had been elected by 22 May, there would have been new Catalan elections. This has now been avoided.”

Now, Quim Torra can form a government and start to push for lifting Article 155.”

“Last year, the normal approval of the budget had to be postponed as the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) withdrew its support to protest against the government’s management of the Catalan crisis. But now, there is initial parliamentary support for the budget from several political parties. The PNV agreed to proceed with this after a deal with the government to boost public pensions in 2018 and 2019. Even though this first step has been taken, the PNV continued to say that it will not back the budget until the central government removes its direct control over Catalonia. Now that lifting Article 155 is a possibility, the 2018 budget is another step closer to getting approved.”