Catalan Separatists Issue Demands As Vox Falters In Election

The hardline Catalan separatist party, Junts, has issued a set of demands to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sancho after neither the ruling centre-right PSOE, nor the center right People's Party (PP) secured the votes to form a government in yesterday's election.

• According to Reuters the Junts said, "we need to use the opportunity given by the election to achieve our goal of Catalan independence... we will see what [Sanchez] is ready to do and which guarantees he would offer in a possible investiture vote."
• "The socialists are the ones who need to make concessions if they want their support… political amnesty and a referendum on independence are our main demands."
• Sanchez has alternative, but challenging, pathways to a majority, including winning the support of left-wing separatist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) but may also require the support of Junts who haven't supported Sanchez in the past four years.
• Any move by Sanchez to secure the support of the Junts risks a reemergence of the political crisis of 2017 when Carles Puigdemont led a unsanctioned bid for Catalan independence.