Catalan election gives voters chance to leave ‘lost decade’, says Salvador Illa

Socialist frontrunner says region ready to unite, rather than focus on divisive politics that has plunged country into crisis

Catalan's election offers voters a chance to leave behind a lost decade" of unstable and divisive rule by pro-independence parties and instead choose a government that will focus on unity and improving neglected" public services in the wealthy north-eastern Spanish region, according to the socialist frontrunner.

Salvador Illa, a former central government health minister who leads the Catalan branch of Spain's ruling socialist party, said the region was ready for change almost seven years after the failed, unilateral bid to secede plunged the country into political crisis.