The Catalan Parliament has passed a motion urging president Quim Torra to ‘face a confidence vote immediately or call a snap election.’
Despite growing criticism from the opposition, the pro-independence leader has already ruled out both calling fresh polls and a vote of confidence on his government.
‘We continue to govern with all our republic ambition intact,’ he wrote on Twitter.
The motion, put forward by the Catalan Socialists (PSC), was approved by a narrow margin of 62 votes in favour and 61 against.
The closest ally of the government, far-left CUP, allowed the motion to succeed by not voting. Unionist Ciudadanos (Cs) and People’s Party (PP) backed the proposal, as well as left-wing Catalunya En Comú-Podem. Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) and Esquerra Republicana (ERC), the two ruling-coalition partners, voted against the motion.
While pro-independence parties won a majority of seats in the past election, in December 2017, JxCat rejected replacing four MPs who were suspended by Spain’s Supreme Court for their role in the independence bid, thus losing four crucial votes to outnumber opposition parties.
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Parliament vice president Josep Costa, a member of JxCat, invoked the election results and the suspended MPs to downplay the importance of the motion: ‘Politically, the chamber has rejected the motion, because politically we must be loyal to the election results.’
Quim Torra has managed to pass only two laws and five decrees in the Catalan regional parliament since he took office in May 2018.
‘We have a government that does not govern … They don’t have a majority and have declined to present a budget,’ said the spokeswoman for the PSC socialists in the Catalan parliament, Eva Granados.