Catalan parliamentary election, 2012

Catalan parliamentary election, 2012

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All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia 68 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	5,413,868 0.9%
Turnout	3,668,310 (67.8%) 9.0 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Artur Mas Oriol Junqueras Pere Navarro Party CiU ERC–CatSí PSC–PSOE Leader since 7 January 2002 17 September 2011 17 December 2011 Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona Last election 62 seats, 38.4% 10 seats, 7.0% 28 seats, 18.4% Seats won 50 21 20 Seat change 12 11 8 Popular vote 1,116,259 498,124 524,707 Percentage 30.7% 13.7% 14.4% Swing 7.7 pp 6.7 pp 4.0 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Alicia Sánchez-Camacho Joan Herrera Albert Rivera Party PP ICV–EUiA C's Leader since 6 July 2008 23 November 2008 9 July 2006 Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona Last election 18 seats, 12.4% 10 seats, 7.4% 3 seats, 3.4% Seats won 19 13 9 Seat change 1 3 6 Popular vote 471,681 359,705 274,925 Percentage 13.0% 9.9% 7.6% Swing 0.6 pp 2.5 pp 4.2 pp
Constituency results map for the Parliament of Catalonia
President before election Artur Mas CiU Elected President Artur Mas CiU

Artur Mas
CiU

Artur Mas
CiU

The 2012 Catalan parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 25 November 2012, to elect the 10th Parliament of Catalonia, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

This was a snap election, announced on 25 September by President Artur Mas. It was called following the pro-independence demonstration in Barcelona on 11 September (the National Day of Catalonia), as a result of the failed talks between President of Catalonia Artur Mas (Convergence and Union) and Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy (People's Party) to give greater fiscal autonomy to Catalonia.

Despite Artur Mas campaigning to win an absolute majority of seats, in the end his party, Convergence and Union (CiU), suffered a large electoral setback, largely unnoticed by opinion polls. The Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) also fared badly, obtaining the worst result in its history (a record which had already been broken in the 2010 election). While polling in third place, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) was able to attract the growing pro-independence movement and recovered the 21 seats it had lost in the previous election, becoming the main parliamentary opposition party for the first time.

The People's Party of Catalonia (PPC) and Citizens (C's) benefitted from the electoral polarization between the pro-independence and anti-independence blocs, scoring their best results until then, with 19 and 9 seats, respectively. The Popular Unity Candidates (CUP) entered in the Parliament for the first time with 3 seats.