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...The Pujol method was to proffer CiU support in the Spanish parliament in Madrid, provided the government devolved more power and funds to the Generalitat....
...On Monday, Ramon Tremosa, a European parliament member from the pro- independence CiU party, published a tweet confirming that Mr Guardiola, who won a string of titles first as a player and then as coach...
...course to oust PP mayors in a string of other important cities, as in Catalonia, where anti-poverty crusader Ada Colau of Barcelona in Common is on course to snatch the regional capital from the hands of CiU...
...Esquerra leaders, however, argue that a joint list uniting CiU and Esquerra risks diluting rather than boosting support for independence....
...Currently the biggest bloc in the regional parliament, Mr Mas’s CiU would win just 13.1 per cent of the vote....
...“The CiU represents local rich families....
...Competing as individual parties would also preserve Esquerra’s chances of replacing Mr Mas’s conservative CiU bloc as the biggest force in parliament....
...Conveniently for Mr Mas, it would also nullify the current opinion poll lead that the leftwing pro-independence Esquerra Republicana movement enjoys over the president’s own CiU party....
...ERC scored an upset victory at the European elections in May, when it won 25 per cent of the Catalan vote and beat CiU into second place....
...The two formed a political alliance last year and both support the November referendum, though CiU is seen as more moderate and less ready to risk all-out confrontation with Madrid....
...It has already weakened Artur Mas, the Catalan president and Mr Pujol’s heir as leader of the CiU, at a crucial moment in the campaign....
...CiU has always seen itself as the standard-bearer of Catalan nationalism, and is leading a campaign to hold a referendum on independence from Spain....
...A final consideration for Mr Mas may have been the fear that a confrontation with Madrid next year would ultimately force him to hold an early election, at a time when polls show that his CiU movement is...
...CiU’s other options don’t look great....
...True, CiU and ERC have enough seats to form a governing coalition that would put the question of sovereignty at the heart of its programme....
...As well as insisting that CiU stick to its campaign pledge on a referendum, Oriol Junqueras, ERC leader, called for a softening of the region’s austerity programme....
...The question is how this might benefit the CiU, the main separatist party....
...The ruling CiU party didn’t do so well, losing 12 seats to hold 50....
...They were effectively pushed into an alliance by Catalan voters in last month’s regional election, which saw the CiU emerge once again as the strongest party in parliament....
...ER is anything but a natural bedfellow of CiU. On independence it is a distinctly more militant party....
...Earlier on Sunday in Catalonia, Maria Villalba, a 68-year-old art gallery owner had just voted for CiU, Mr Mas’s party....
...A poll by the La Vanguardia newspaper showed the CiU party winning between 64 and 66 of the Catalan parliament’s seats – close to achieving an absolute majority of 68....
...Recent polls have indicated that the CiU is unlikely to achieve an absolute majority of 68 seats or more in the Catalan parliament, with one recent poll commissioned by the Guardian newspaper forecasting...
...Added uncertainty may come from Mr Mas’ CiU party losing ground, with a jump in the vote for the outright separatist ER party raising the prospect of a more radical pro-referendum coalition being formed...
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