Catalonia election: Spanish stock tumbles as pro-independence parties declare victory

Outright majority

Pro-independence parties won an outright majority on Thursday night with 99 per cent of votes counted as exiled leader Carles Puigdemont hailed victory for separatists in regional elections.

While no single party gained an outright majority, the three separatist parties together took 70 seats.

The Ibex 35 is down 1.6 per cent overall, taking it back to its lowest levels of the month and wiping out a rally of 1 per cent made on polling day.

Appearing among supporters in Brussels last night, Puigdemont said he and his government must be allowed to return to Spain where there is currently a warrant out for his arrest. He also called the result a ‘slap in the face’ to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy who had called the election after kicking Puigdemont from office.

“The Spanish state has been defeated, Rajoy and his allies have lost,” Puigdemont said, insisting the result was one “no one can dispute”.

Puigdemont, himself facing detention in Spain on charges of sedition and rebellion, also issued a call to the European Union. Europe had to “take note” that the “receipt of Rajoy does not work,” he said, calling for a political solution to the impasse.

The secessionist parties defied consistent poll predictions of a hung parliament to secure an absolute majority of 70 seats out of 135, and 47.5 percent of the popular vote. Meanwhile the unionist bloc took 57 seats, with 43.4 per cent of the vote.