Catalan independence movement
Other individuals include:All of the Spanish national political parties in Catalonia reject the idea of independence. Together they represent a majority of votes yet a minority of seats in the Catalan parliament. Of these, only Podemos is prepared to hold a referendum on the issue in Catalonia; others such as Ciutadans, and the People's Party of Catalonia, which had 25.4% and 4.2% of the vote respectively in the 2017 Catalan regional election, have always opposed the notion of Catalan self-determination. The Socialists' Party (13.9% of vote) opposes independence as well. While some of its members supported the idea of a self-determination referendum up until 2012, the official position as of 2015 is that the Spanish Constitution should be reformed in order to better accommodate Catalonia. A majority of voters of left-wing platform Catalonia Yes We Can (8.94%) reject independence although the party favours a referendum in which it would campaign for Catalonia remaining part of Spain. CDC's Catalanist former-partner Unió came out against independence and fared badly in every subsequent election, eventually disbanding due to bankruptcy in 2017.
2017 Catalan regional election
On 26 October 2017, it was expected that President of the Government of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont would call an election to prevent the enforcement of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which was due to be approved by the Spanish Senate on the following day amid the 2017 Spanish constitutional crisis and which would have resulted in direct rule from the central government in Madrid being imposed over Catalonia. This move sparked outcry within pro-independence ranks, including members within Puigdemont's coalition, who had aimed for a unilateral declaration of independence in response to the Spanish government's move to trigger Article 155. Finally, President Puigdemont ruled out calling an election, allegedly because of the Spanish government's refusal to call off the invocation of the Article 155 procedure even were an election to be called by Catalan authorities. After Puigdemont's refusal to call an election, a debate over a possible declaration of independence went ahead as planned in the Parliament of Catalonia later that day and into the next day, simultaneous to the Spanish Senate debating the enforcement of direct rule in Catalonia. At the end of the debate, the Catalan parliament voted a unilateral declaration of independence which was backed 70–10, two MPs casting a blank ballot and all MPs from Citizens, the Socialists' Party of Catalonia and the People's Party boycotting the vote. Mariano Rajoy subsequently removed the entire Catalan government from office and declared the Parliament's dissolution, calling a regional election for 21 December 2017.