Barcelona’s acting far-leftist mayor Ada Colau may win a second term in office on Saturday with the support of the Socialists and representatives backed by former French premier Manuel Valls – in a deal aimed at preventing a Catalan pro-independence leader taking the job.
Local elections in May produced a fragmented result in Spain’s second-largest city: Colau’s Barcelona en Comu (Barcelona in Common) and the separatist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Catalonia’s Republican Left) parties each won 10 seats, while the Socialists got eight and Valls’ group took six.
City hall votes to pick a new mayor on Saturday. The winning candidate will need the support of 21 representatives.
The outcome has national importance because Spain’s acting Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez may need the support of Esquerra Republicana to be re-elected by parliament in the coming weeks.
via Euronews
Photo: Mayoress of Barcelona, Ada Colau, casts her vote during general elections at a polling station in Barcelona, Spain. Nearly 36.9 million people are called to vote in the Spanish elections to choose the 350 seats that conform the Parliament’s Lower Chamber and the 208 seats of the Upper Chamber for the next legislature. EPA-EFE/Quique Garcia
