Separatist party backs Spain’s ruling Socialists to form govt in Catalonia

BARCELONA: Catalan separatist party ERC agreed on Friday to support efforts by Spain´s Socialists to form a government in the wealthy northeastern region, a boost for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Securing the backing of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) is key for Sanchez´s Socialists, who won the most seats in a regional election in Catalonia in May but fell short of a majority.

The Socialists, led locally by former health minister Salvador Illa, took 42 seats in Catalonia´s 135-seat regional assembly. The party´s coalition partners at the national level, the far-left Sumar alliance, won six while the ERC got 20.

Being able to form a government in Catalonia will be seen as a vindication of Sanchez´s strategy of trying to tamp down support for separatism in the region by offering concessions, including a controversial amnesty for those involved in an illegal independence referendum in 2017 that triggered Spain´s worst political crisis in decades.