independence activist Carles Puigdemont will be a candidate in the May election in Catalonia. The current Catalan president Pere Aragonès, leader of the independence party Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), announced last week the holding of early elections in Catalan Parliament on May 12.
The elections in Catalonia, a region of nearly eight million inhabitants, promise to be hotly contested. According to a poll published Thursday, the Socialist Party, regional branch of Pedro Sanchez's Workers' Catalan Party, would come first, obtaining between 35 and 42 seats.