Wealth Tax Impact: Details & Analysis | Tax Foundation Skip to content Colombia, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. Countries have repealed their wealth taxes for a variety of reasons. They raise little revenue, create high administrative costs, and induce an outflow of wealthy individuals and their money. Many policymakers have also recognized that high taxes on … Read more
Spain’s Socialists won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s Catalan elections, dealing a serious blow to more than a decade of separatist governance in Catalonia. The Socialists had 42 seats in the 135-seat chamber, while hardline separatist party Junts was in second place with 35 seats and the more moderate separatist party ERC had 20 seats. The result is an existential threat to separatist governance in Catalonia, which led an illegal independence referendum in 2017. Separatist parties do not have enough seats to form a coalition government, and there is a risk the vote may need to be repeated. Separatist sentiment in Catalonia has decreased, with the pro-independence movement losing energy and unity in recent years.
Catalans are voting in a regional election between an exiled separatist politician, Carles Puigdemont, and the Socialist Party led by Salvador Illa. Puigdemont, who fled Spain after a failed independence bid in 2017, is vowing to resurrect the bid if elected. Opinion polls predict a lead for the Socialists, with the possibility of forming a coalition government due to the likelihood of no party reaching a majority. If no agreement is reached by August, a repeat election would take place in October.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez considered resigning after a court launched a business corruption probe into his wife’s private dealings. However, thousands of Socialist Party supporters gathered in Madrid to urge him to stay, denying the allegations against his wife and stating he will announce his decision on Monday. Opposition parties condemned Sanchez’s move, while Madrid’s prosecuting authority appealed the court’s decision to investigate the complaint against his wife.
Catalonia’s regional leader, Pere Aragones, has denied allegations by Spain’s spy agency that he secretly led a radical separatist protest group. Aragones received heavily redacted declassified documents related to the alleged espionage and called for those responsible to be held accountable. The Canada-based group Citizen Lab has stated that more than 60 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement, including Aragones, were targeted by Pegasus spyware. Spain’s Justice Minister has reiterated that the government did not know about or authorize the alleged spying. Aragones claims that the documents are full of falsehoods and aim to destroy the legitimate political project of Catalan independence. His case is being investigated by a Barcelona court.