Pro-independence parties set to take 50% of vote and keep majority, says CEO poll
Survey predicts neck-to-neck battle for first place between ERC (34-35) and JxCat (32-34), followed by Socialists (26-29)
The pro-independence majority in the Catalan parliament after the February 14 election is safe, according to the latest poll published on Friday by the Catalan government-funded CEO agency.
The survey predicts that parties in favor of a Catalan republic would amass 74 to 77 of the chamber's seats—a majority is set at 68.
The bloc would also, for the first time ever, obtain over 50% of the vote, with 51.2% counting ERC, JxCat, CUP, and PDeCAT, although the latter is not expected to win any seats.
CEO also suggests that there would be a neck-to-neck battle for first place between the two current government coalition parties, ERC (34-35 seats, now at 32) and JxCat (32-34, now at 34), followed by the Socialists in third position after a significant surge (26-29, now with 17 seats).
The winner of the last election, Ciudadanos, would dramatically drop from 36 to 12-13 MPs, while the People's Party would partly benefit from this, surging from 4 to 9 seats.
The far-left CUP party is expected to obtain twice as many MPs as it had this term and win 8 seats, while left-wing Catalunya en Comú – Podem would slightly drop with 6-8.
One of the main headlines of the night is expected to be the far-right Vox party making an appearance in the Catalan chamber for the first time ever with 5-6 seats.
Significant differences to CIS
This poll is quite different from that published by CIS, the Spanish-government-funded agency, last week.
It suggested that the pro-independence majority in the Catalan parliament is at risk, with ERC, JxCat, and CUP on course to win between 58-71 seats in the upcoming vote.
The victory was projected for either the Socialists, who the poll predicted will win 30-35 seats, or ERC, who look set to take 31-33, with JxCat in third place at 20-27.
The poll showed that Ciutadans (Cs) would come in fourth place with 13-15 seats, closely followed by En Comú Podem with 9-12 seats and CUP with 8-11 seats.
According to this same poll, far-right Vox will enter the parliament for the first time with 6-10 seats, beating out the People’s Party (PP), who are only projected to gain 7 seats.