BARCELONA: Spain’s ruling Socialists regained control of Catalonia’s regional government as a new cabinet was sworn in on Monday, ending over a decade of separatist rule in the region.

The 16-member cabinet is led by Salvador Illa, who was Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I want to assure you that the government will govern for all, this is a real obsession,” Illa said during the swearing-in ceremony.

It is the first time since 2010 that the wealthy northeastern region has a government that does not come from the pro-independence camp. The Socialists won the most seats in a regional election in May, but fell short of a majority.

Illa secured the support of the tiny far-left Comuns party — part of the Sumar alliance that backs Sanchez at national level — and moderate separatist ERC party to become regional leader in a vote on Thursday in Catalonia’s regional assembly.

Forming a government in Catalonia will be seen as a vindication of Sanchez’s strategy of trying to tamp down support for separatism in the region by offering concessions, including a controversial amnesty for those involved in an illegal independence referendum in 2017 that triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024