Catalan politics

The constitutional status of Catalonia is currently subject to a dispute between the Government of Spain, which view it as an autonomous community within the Kingdom of Spain and the unilaterally declared Catalan Republic, which view it as an independent sovereign state. The Politics of Catalonia operate within this context and are primarily related to the Generalitat de Catalunya institutional system, including the Parliament of Catalonia, the President and the Executive Council.

Catalan politics also influences Spanish politics as a whole due to the presence of Catalan nationalist parties in the Spanish Parliament, whose political support is often required by any given winner of the Spanish general elections to form majorities. Convergence and Union has been described as being "long the region's dominant political party". Catalan politics is also noted, to a lesser extent, for the influence exerted by the Socialists' Party of Catalonia on its sister major party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Catalonia was one of the main centres of Spanish industrialisation. During these years, the struggle between the Barcelonan conservative industrial bourgeoisie and the working class dominated Catalan politics, as it did elsewhere in Europe during the industrialisation process. In Catalonia this situation was nuanced by the fact that immigrants from the rest of the Spain were an increasing portion of the workers, since the local workforce was not enough to cover the demands of a rising economy.

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Wikipedia