Socialists' Party of Catalonia
The Socialist Party of Catalonia ( Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, short PSC, PSC - PSOE also abbreviated ) is a social democratic party in Catalonia. It is written as an independent party, but at the same time fulfills the function of regional sister party of the Spanish socialist party PSOE. Leading officials of the PSC belong to the national governing bodies of the PSOE. The PSC deputies in the Spanish Congress, the first chamber of the Spanish Parliament, are members of the PSOE Group. However, in the second chamber, the Senate, they form under the name Entesa Catalana de Progrés, in short: Entesa, ( German as " Progressive Catalan Alliance") for a common fraction with the senators of the Catalan Left Nationalists ( Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC), the Catalan Greens ( Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds, ICV ) and the Left Party Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (EEA).
Under Pasqual Maragall the PSC was in the Catalan regional elections of 1999 for the first time just for the most voted party in Catalonia ( 37.7 %, 52 seats), but made fewer MPs than the ruling party Convergència i Unio ( CiU ) ( 37.7 %, 56 seats) which could then continue their government. In the elections on 16 November 2003, the Catalan Socialists lost indeed a voice, but were 31.2 % form (42 seats) share of the vote again after the largest party and was this time a three-party coalition with ERC and ICV. Pasqual Maragall was elected Catalan prime minister.
Main project for the following legislative session was a major enlargement of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, which led to repeated tensions between the PSC -led Catalan regional government and the Spanish PSOE government under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and between PSC and ERC within the Catalan three-party coalition. The rejection of the reformed Statute by the ERC in May 2006 led to a government crisis, which resulted in the ERC members left the government. Pasqual Maragall was then new elections and announced his intention to himself no longer a candidate for prime minister. Candidate was, instead, the party general secretary, José Montilla, who was industry minister in the Cabinet Zapatero until then. In the parliamentary elections in Catalonia in 2006, the Socialists had to accept losses and reached only 26.8 % (37 seats). Nevertheless Montilla then put away the three-party coalition with ERC and ICV. The take place in November 2010 parliamentary elections have followed brought the Socialist Party suffered fresh losses from the resignation of the party leader Montilla.