Spain's Catalonia sets clock ticking for possible fresh polls

Barcelona: The speaker of Catalonia s parliament said Wednesday he will give the Spanish region s assembly two months to form a new government or else...

Barcelona: The speaker of Catalonia's parliament said Wednesday he will give the Spanish region's assembly two months to form a new government or else he will push for new elections.

No party secured an absolute majority in Catalonia's 135-seat parliament in a May 12 regional vote in the wealthy northeastern region, which saw separatist parties lose their governing majority in the body they had dominated for the past decade.

The local branch of Spain's ruling Socialists, led by Salvador Illa, won the biggest share of the vote giving it 42 seats, while hardline separatist party JxCat -- headed by exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont -- finished second with 35 seats.

The regional Catalan parliament had until June 25 to vote on a new government but neither Illa nor Puigdemont decided to present themselves to an investiture vote in the assembly as they had not secured enough backing from other parties to be successful and preferred to keep negotiating.

So the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Josep Rull of JxCat, on Wednesday set a two-month deadline for parties to agree on a new head of the regional government, otherwise a fresh election will be held -- most likely in mid-October.