Montilla bows out of PSC party leadership after crushing defeat

The defeated Socialist Catalan premier, Jos¨¦ Montilla, has announced he will give up his parliamentary seat as well as leadership of his party. "I am not clinging on to the seat or the position," he said at midday on Monday after the worst defeat in his party's history, in which the Catalan Socialists (PSC) lost nine seats and 230,000 voters.

Montilla has not named a successor, preferring to avoid an open leadership contest within the Catalan parliament. He remains acting party leader, while Girona province chief Joaquim Nadal will lead the group in parliament until the PSC announces a new executive, probably next fall.

Montilla made a wide-ranging analysis on the reasons behind the PSC's rout. Speaking after a two-hour executive meeting Monday, he named the crisis as a "determining factor" but spoke of his own errors and actions by Jos¨¦ Luis Rodr¨ªguez Zapatero's government, such as freezing pensions. Montilla said he wants to free up time to dedicate himself to the "renovation" of his party, which faces municipal elections next May.

Current Barcelona Mayor Jordi Hereu is the most likely candidate for the upcoming municipal elections in his city, according to Carles Mart¨ª, first secretary of PSC Barcelona.

Mart¨ª described the results of the regional elections, which saw the nationalist bloc CiU sweep to power on Sunday by a comfortable margin, as "boding ill for Barcelona Socialists, as well as the rest of Catalonia."

But he insisted Jordi Hereu is "equally as strong or weak regardless" following the result. This message was echoed by the Barcelona mayor himself. Hereu said that while the regional defeat should be seen as a "lesson," he believed his party's strong local base was still firm.

CiU Catalan premier-in-waiting Artur Mas has already made his first decisions as head of the regional government, a position he will take up before Christmas.

CiU spokesman Josep Antoni Duran Lleida announced Monday that he will embark on an austerity program that will slash the number of government departments. His party will also scrap inheritance tax, which the outgoing tripartite coalition had only applied to the highest income bracket.

CiU's number two Felip Puig told the PSC to "recover its strength" because Catalonia "needs a strong opposition."