2006 Catalan regional election

2006 Catalan regional election

← 2003 1 November 2006 2010 →
All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia 68 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	5,321,274 0.3%
Turnout	2,982,108 (56.0%) 6.5 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Artur Mas José Montilla Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira Party CiU PSC–CpC ERC Leader since 7 January 2002 15 July 2006 25 November 1996 Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona Last election 46 seats, 30.9% 42 seats, 31.2% 23 seats, 16.4% Seats won 48 37 21 Seat change 2 5 2 Popular vote 935,756 796,173 416,355 Percentage 31.5% 26.8% 14.0% Swing 0.6 pp 4.4 pp 2.4 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Josep Piqué Joan Saura Albert Rivera Party PP ICV–EUiA C's Leader since 4 September 2003 26 November 2000 9 July 2006 Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona Last election 15 seats, 11.9% 9 seats, 7.3% Did not contest Seats won 14 12 3 Seat change 1 3 3 Popular vote 316,222 282,693 89,840 Percentage 10.7% 9.5% 3.0% Swing 1.2 pp 2.2 pp New party
Election result by constituency
President before election Pasqual Maragall PSC Elected President José Montilla PSC

The 2006 Catalan regional election was held on Wednesday, 1 November 2006, to elect the 8th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

This was a snap election, called roughly one year before the scheduled end of the legislature as a result of the uneasy and controversial drafting of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which further expanded the authority of the Catalan Government. The statutory amendment had been ratified in a referendum on 18 June 2006 after being approved in the Cortes Generales, with roughly 74% of voters in favour of the new Statute and 21% against. The referendum was noted for its low turnout, as only 48.9% of all registered voters had cast a vote.^[1][2]

Since the 2003 election a left-of-centre coalition of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left (ICV–EUiA) had been in power, with Pasqual Maragall as Catalan president. In May 2006, ERC had left the coalition after internal tensions due to its disagreement on the final draft of the Statute of Autonomy approved by the Spanish parliament, thus leaving Maragall without a majority and precipitating the early election call. On 21 June 2006 Maragall announced his will not to seek re-election, arguably due to the political erosion his government had suffered after their uneasy relationship with ERC, as well as his political differences with Spanish Prime Minister and PSOE Secretary-General José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.^[3]

Unlike the previous elections in 1999 and 2003, when Convergence and Union (CiU) had achieved a plurality of seats in the autonomous Parliament despite narrowly losing it out in the popular vote to the PSC, in the 2006 election CiU emerged as the most popular party both in votes and seats, but fell far short of an absolute majority. After coalition negotiations, the PSC, ERC and ICV–EUiA agreed to renew the three-party coalition that had been in power in the 2003–2006 period, this time under the leadership of the new PSC leader, José Montilla. The election also saw a new party, Citizens (C's) entering the autonomous parliament, resulting in six political parties achieving parliamentary representation in the Catalan parliament for the first time since 1988.