Catalan independence parties seen losing parliamentary majority in election – poll

A group of people wearing Esteladas (Catalan separatist flags) sit on a curb during the regional national day ‘La Diada’ in Barcelona

Catalan independence parties are seen as losing their parliamentary majority in an election, according to a poll published on Sunday, though the wafer-thin margin between the two sides predicts a hard-fought campaign to December’s ballot.

The poll was taken from last Monday to Thursday, just as Spain’s central government was preparing to take control of the restive region, which then made a unilateral declaration of independence on Friday.

Pro-independence parties were seen as taking 42.5 percent of the vote while anti-independence parties would win 43.4 percent, according to the poll of some 1,000 people surveyed by Sigma Dos and published in the anti-independence newspaper El Mundo.