BARCELONA – Voting has started in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia on Sunday as 5.3 million voters are called to cast ballots in a regional election that will test the region’s secessionist movement.
Salvador Illa, who was in charge of Spain’s coronavirus response as its health minister until last month, will lead the ticket of the Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Illa is hoping to end the hold pro-independence lawmakers have held in the regional parliament for the past decade. Polls, however, predict a tight race between the Socialists and the two leading pro-secession parties, the left-wing Republic Left of Catalonia and the center-right Together for Catalonia.