MADRID: Catalonia's parliament will convene next Monday to vote on the region's new leader, assembly speaker Roger Torrent said on Tuesday, though it is unclear whether the candidate put forward by secessionist parties will be elected or not. His name was put forward after former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who had initially been picked as candidate to lead the region again after December regional polls but is in exile in Belgium, pulled out last week. Even in the extraordinary situation of detention and exile for eight Catalan MPs and the Spanish government’s October 27 sacking of the Catalan government under article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, Puigdemont was still sure of a 68-vote majority in the 135-seat chamber. MADRID (AP) — Catalonia's parliament will vote next week on whether to elect a jailed separatist leader as the region's new president, as part of an ongoing effort to gain independence from Spain. The vote is the latest push by Catalan separatists to advance their attempt break away from Spain — an effort the central government in Madrid has thwarted in the courts.
The Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, proposes Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol as a candidate for President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, but he has been preventively jailed since 16 October 2017, accused of sedition. This happens after Carles Puigdemont resigns as a possible candidate, who, if elected, would have been a symbolic president with a symbolic government in Brussels. The candidacy of Sànchez also reportedly lacks one seat for a majority.