BARCELONA, Spain — Voters in Catalonia delivered victory to separatist parties in a regional election on Sunday, raising the likelihood that Spain's most powerful economic region will hold an independence referendum that Madrid has vowed to block.
But even as voters set up a fight with the central government by rewarding the independence cause, they delivered no clear message about who should lead it. The party of Artur Mas, the Catalan president who called the election two years ahead of schedule, actually lost seats in the regional parliament, falling to just 50 seats in the 135-seat body, from 62 in the last vote.
As a result, before holding any referendum on independence, Mr. Mas will first have to strike alliances with smaller parties that share his separatist goal, but not his economic and social agenda. After a vote that he had described as "the most significant in the history of Catalonia," Mr. Mas told supporters that his referendum project was on track, while recognizing his party's failure to consolidate its grip on power.
"Mas managed to turn separatism into a burning issue, but then ended up being overtaken by more radical parties in this debate and now finds himself in a much harder position to govern Catalonia in a time of crisis," said Ferran Pedret Santos, a lawyer who was himself elected for the first time Sunday as a Socialist lawmaker.
Indeed, despite the enthusiasm that the separatist drive has generated in Catalonia, a region in northeastern Spain with an outsize weight both economically and culturally, Sunday's vote also underlined divisions among the region's 7.5 million citizens. In particular, there are questions over whether sovereignty demands should be limited to seeking fiscal concessions from Madrid or stretch far beyond that.
Mr. Mas called the election after failing to persuade Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to ease Catalonia's federal tax burden, and after a huge pro-independence rally in Barcelona on Sept. 11.
"Whether people like or not, Catalonia does most of its trade with the rest of Spain, so pursuing independence would add a lot of uncertainty, which is not exactly what people need in the middle of a crisis," said Sara González, a 34-year-old chemist.
Before Sunday's vote, Mr. Rajoy accused Mr. Mas of acting irresponsibly by turning the vote into a divisive plebiscite on independence, and thus diverting Catalans' attention from his financial mismanagement. There was some evidence that Catalans agreed.
José María Cañellas, general manager of a digital television company based in Barcelona, said that, while he had backed Mr. Mas's Convergència i Uni" party in the past, he had not voted for Mr. Mas on Sunday because "the duty of our government is to help create jobs and get us out of this crisis rather than divide people over independence."
One of the biggest benefactors on Sunday was the left-leaning Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party, which has long pushed for independence. That party came in second Sunday, doubling its parliamentary representation to 21 seats, from 10 seats won two years ago.
Mr. Rajoy's Popular Party won 19 seats Sunday, little changed from the 18 seats that it won in Catalonia two years ago.
The separatist drive in Catalonia has emerged as a huge domestic political challenge for Mr. Rajoy, who has also remained stuck on the front lines of the euro crisis and is under pressure to decide whether Spain needs more financial assistance through bond purchases by the European Central Bank.
With Spain in the midst of a recession expected to last through 2013, Mr. Rajoy is struggling with a record unemployment of 25 percent, as well as street protests against his austerity measures.
The European Union, meanwhile, is expected to soon demand significant job cuts at Bankia and other rescued Spanish banks, in return for releasing part of a roughly $129 billion European banking bailout negotiated by Madrid last June.
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