Dhe party of former Catalan regional president and independence supporter Carles Puigdemont is leaving the regional government in Catalonia. According to preliminary results on Friday, in the two-day vote by the Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) party, a good 55 percent voted to leave and around 42 percent to remain. The withdrawal but not the end for the government in Barcelona: Regional President Pere Aragonès from the left-wing ERC announced a minority government.
The Junts per Catalunya has been involved in changing governments since 2016. Tensions between the two parties escalated last week when the Junts threatened a no-confidence vote against Aragonès per Catalunya. He then dismissed his Vice-President Jordi Puigneró from the Junts per Catalunya.
With an illegal independence referendum and the brief proclamation of independence in 2017, the Catalan regional government plunged Spain into the worst political crisis in decades. Madrid took tough action at the time, had those responsible arrested, deposed the regional government and suspended the far-reaching autonomy status for rich Catalonia. To this day, the region in south-east Spain is deeply divided over the issue of independence.