Lluis Gene / AFP - Getty Images
Current President of Catalonia and leader of the CiU (Catalan Convergence and Unity) party Artur Mas casts his ballot for regional elections in Barcelona on Sunday.
By Reuters
BARCELONA, Spain - Voters in Spain's Catalonia region began voting Sunday in an election whose outcome is likely to test Spanish unity at a time of deep economic crisis.?
Opinion polls show two-thirds of voters in this region on the French border will cast ballots for parties, both rightist and leftist, that want Catalan independence from Spain.
Catalan President Artur Mas will likely win re-election since his conservative Convergence and Union party is forecast to take a majority, some 62 to 64 seats, in the 135-seat regional assembly, or Parliament.
Frustration over high unemployment and a deep recession have fueled a separatist resurgence in Catalonia, where polls show that for the first time more than half of the people want to break away from Spain.
Many Catalans believe their economy would be more prosperous on its own, complaining that a high portion of their taxes go to the central government in Madrid.
Mas, who adopted the independence cause in September after a massive street demonstration, campaigned on a promise to hold a referendum on secession.
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If he carries through with the pledge, it will put him on a collision course with Madrid, where Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will use the constitution to block a referendum.?
"Catalonia has never faced elections this important," Mas said at a campaign rally this week. He told supporters he wanted to be the last president of Catalonia within Spain.
Emilio Morenatti / AP
Supporters of center-right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) leader, Artur Mas, wave their pro-independence "estelada" flags during the last day of campaigning in a meeting in Barcelona, Spain, Friday.
A strong mandate for Mas and other Catalan independence leaders from the left will undermine Rajoy's mission to persuade investors of Spain's fiscal and political stability.
Spain's deep recession and high public deficit have put it at the heart of the euro zone debt crisis and the government's borrowing costs are painfully high.
Alicia Sanchez-Camacho, the candidate for Rajoy's People's Party in Catalonia has campaigned on a message that leaving Spain and the European Union would lead to economic disaster. The PP is vying to be the second biggest party in the Catalan Parliament with opinion polls forecasting it will win 17 seats.
"Don't stay at home (on election day) if you don't want them to kick us out of Spain and out of Europe," she said at a campaign rally this week.
Polls were due to close at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) Sunday.
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