BARCELONA: The Catalan parliament is expected to elect fiercely pro-independence candidate Quim Torra to be its regional president later Monday as separatists seek to end the emergency direct rule imposed by Madrid last year and renew their secession bid.
Torra’s elevation became all but assured after the far-left radical pro-independence CUP party said it would abstain from an investiture vote in the regional parliament on Monday.
“The CUP will not block the formation of a new government,” the party said.
The absence of its votes will leave father of three Torra with the simple majority needed to be elected regional president.
Analysts warned the road ahead would be a rocky one, however, with politicians and voters split on the merits of trying to leave Spain.
The formation of a new regional government is required for Spain to lift the state of direct rule.
The Catalan regional assembly had failed to elect Torra in an initial vote requiring an absolute majority on Saturday.
In the second-round vote scheduled for Monday, only a simple majority will be required so Torra is expected to win the vote.
He was handpicked as a candidate by deposed leader Carles Puigdemont.
Puigdemont is in exile in Germany and faces jail on rebellion charges for last year’s secession bid if he returns to Spain.
In an interview Saturday with Italian daily La Stampa, Puigdemont said Torra, as his designated successor, “takes power in provisional conditions and he is aware of that. From October 27, he will be able to call new elections.”
Torra, 55, gave a combative speech during Saturday’s debate.
He told parliament he was “working tirelessly for the Catalan republic.”
He signaled that the secession crisis is far from over, even if Catalonia does finally get a government.
Separatist leaders declared Catalonia independent last October after an outlawed independence referendum.
That prompted Madrid to impose direct rule and led to months of political limbo.
Torra lambasted European institutions for their “unacceptable silence” over the Catalan crisis. He said he was ready to talk “without conditions” with the government of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Rajoy’s government and the Spanish courts have declared secession illegal and vowed to block it.
Rajoy said that constitutional direct rule “could be used again if necessary,” if the next regional leadership did not respect the law.
Catalonia is Spain’s richest and most populous region, with 7.5 million people.
It has its own distinct language and cultural traditions.
Calls have increased in recent years for it to have more control over its finances, with some demanding outright independence.
Last year’s secession bid plunged Spain into its biggest political crisis in decades.
Separatist parties won regional elections in December. But every leadership candidate picked by the separatist camp since has fallen flat.
Torra faces divisions within the separatist camp, composed of the CUP, the leftwing ERC party and Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia grouping, according to Antonio Barroso, deputy research director at Teneo Intelligence.
Barroso said the ERC wants a moderate approach to avoid a Madrid clampdown and to play a longer independence game.
“In contrast, Puigdemont’s strategy is to continue using every opportunity... to continue challenging the Spanish authorities and keep the secessionist momentum alive.”
For Oriol Bartomeus, political analyst at Barcelona Autonomous University, what is in sight is “a divided government — there could be fallout.”
Ines Arrimadas, leader of the centrist, unionist Ciudadanos party, told Torra on Saturday: “I don’t know if you will be president of the regional government, but you will never be the one of all Catalans.”
Catalan lawmakers set to elect new hard-line leader
Catalan lawmakers set to elect new hard-line leader
- The formation of a new regional government is required for Spain to lift the state of direct rule
- The Spanish courts have declared secession illegal and vowed to block it
What to know about the Israeli president’s state visit to Australia
- Netanyahu had been outraged by Australia’s decision four months earlier to join France, Britain and Canada in recognizing a Palestinian state
MELBOURNE, Australia: The stated purpose of Israel President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia is to support the Jewish community still reeling from an antisemitic attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 15 dead. But his critics warn his presence undermines rather than repairs social cohesion frayed by the far away war in Gaza.
Protest rallies are expected to follow the president, who performs a largely ceremonial role as head of state, as he travels to Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra over four days starting Monday. Some critics demand he be arrested in Australia on suspicion of inciting genocide in Gaza.
He is the first Israeli head of state to visit Australia since Reuven Rivlin in 2020. Herzog’s father, Chaim Herzog, also visited Australia as Israel’s president in 1986.
Here’s what to know:
The Australian visit comes at a time of extraordinary bilateral tensions
Within hours of two gunmen allegedly inspired by the Daesh group launching their attack in Sydney on Dec. 14 last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, posting on social media “your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”
Netanyahu had been outraged by Australia’s decision four months earlier to join France, Britain and Canada in recognizing a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to link widespread calls for a Palestinian state, and criticism of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, to growing incidents of antisemitism worldwide.
Albanese has accused Netanyahu of being “in denial” over the humanitarian consequences of war in Gaza. Netanyahu has branded the Australian a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”
Australian Jews have appealed to both leaders to restore “diplomatic norms” to a bilateral relationship that had been friendly for decades.
Albanese has made clear his government’s invitation to Herzog to make that state visit was the idea of Jewish leaders.
“President Herzog is coming particularly to engage with members of the Jewish community who are grieving the loss of 15 innocent lives,” Albanese said.
“People should recognize the solemn nature of the engagement that President Herzog will have with the community of Bondi in particular, and bear that in mind by the way that they respond over coming weeks,” he added.
Jewish leaders welcome Herzog’s visit
Sydney-based Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said his community “warmly anticipates” Herzog’s arrival.
“His visit will lift the spirits of a pained community and we hope will lead to a much-needed recalibration of bilateral relations between two historic allies,” Ryvchin said.
“President Herzog is a patriot and a person of dignity and compassion and holds an office that is above party politics. He is a person who has sadly had to comfort families, police and first responders after terrorist attacks many times, and will know how to reassure and fortify our community in its darkest time,” he added.
Ryvchin is one of the Australian Jewish leaders who have accused Albanese’s center-left Labour Party government of not doing enough to curb an increase in antisemitism in Sydney and Melbourne, where 85 percent of Australia’s Jewish population live, since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023.
Herzog sees opportunity to reset relations
Herzog, a former head of Israel’s centrist Labour Party, now holds a job meant to serve as a unifier and moral compass for all Israelis. A onetime rival of Netanyahu, he has good working relations with the prime minister.
Ahead of his visit, Herzog told The Associated Press that the “primary reason” for the trip was to stand with Australia’s Jewish community as the representative of all Israelis.
“From thousands of miles away in Israel, we feel the deep pain of our Jewish Australian sisters and brothers. I am coming to show them our love and support at this devastating time,” he said.
But Herzog also said the visit is an opportunity “to reinvigorate relations” between Israel and Australia.
“There is a long history of partnership between our two nations and deeply held shared values,” he said, adding that the visit “offers a chance to reignite the longstanding bipartisan support for ties between Israel and Australia.”
“I hope to be able to communicate this message of goodwill and friendship to the Australian people, and dispel many of the lies and misinformation spread about Israel over the last two years,” he said.
Israel’s critics have called for Herzog’s invitation to be withdrawn
“This is one of the most divisive figures in the world. Bringing him to Australia will undermine social cohesion, it will not rebuild it. It will increase division, it will not bring about national unity,” Australian human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti said. Sidoti described the invitation as a ”crazy idea.”
Sidoti was one of three experts appointed by the UN’s Human Rights Council to an inquiry that reported in September last year that Herzog, Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had incited the commission of genocide in Gaza.
The findings carry no legal consequence and Israel has rejected genocide allegations against the country as antisemitic “blood libel.” Sidoti and other lawyers say Australian police could potentially arrest Herzog on suspicion of inciting genocide, which is a crime under Australian law as well as international law. Australian Federal Police have declined to comment.
A lawmaker in Albanese’s government, Ed Husic, said he was “very uncomfortable” with Herzog’s visit. Husic, a Muslim and vocal critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, said he was “concerned that a figure like that doesn’t necessarily enhance social cohesion.”
Some state government lawmakers from Albanese’s Labour Party have said they will join a protest in downtown Sydney on Monday planned by the Palestine Action Group activist organization.
“We need to send a clear message to our government and to the world … we are fundamentally opposed to this tour, which is designed to normalize genocide,” protest organizer Josh Lees said.
Police prepare to use enhanced powers of arrest to control protesters in Sydney
In response to the Bondi shooting, the New South Wales state parliament rushed through legislation increasing police powers to arrest protesters in the aftermath of a declared terrorist attack.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said a heightened police response in Sydney during Herzog’s visit was necessary to ensure safety.
“We will have thousands of mourners and thousands of protesters as well as a visiting head of state all in the same city at the same time. And we’ve got a responsibility to keep people safe in those circumstances,” Minns said.
“Every international city anywhere in the world would apply exactly the same geographical restrictions so that the two groups don’t meet and as a result there’s not a major confrontation,” Minns added.
