Catalonia headed for 14 February election

Catalonia is headed for a snap election on 14 February 2021 after no candidate has been put forward to replace the ousted Quim Torra as president. Roger Torrent, the Parliament speaker, held discussions with the various political groups and no candidate was presented.

Torra was disqualified from holding office in September after the Spanish Supreme Court upheld his disobedience conviction for failing to remove a banner in favor of Catalan political prisoners and exiles from the Catalan government headquarters building during an election campaign in 2019.

Once he was ousted from power, a two-month time period began to find a replacement president. The pro-independence parties, who hold a majority vote in the chamber, decided not to put forward a candidate and instead head for elections, and no opposition party has presented a potential new president either.

Formal communication to the Parliament is the equivalent act of a failed investiture and therefore the countdown to the election begins.