The Guardian view on Catalonia’s election: moving on from nationalism’s high tide | Editorial

A bad night for pro-independence parties, and a very good one for the Socialists, has vindicated Pedro Sanchez's conciliatory strategy

In a complex political landscape, Sunday's regional elections in Catalonia duly delivered a finely balanced result. Though the Catalan branch of the Spanish Socialist party (PSC) comfortably topped the poll as the largest party, it needs to solve some challenging parliamentary arithmetic in order to govern. Days and weeks of haggling and horse-trading loom.

The underlying message of the election, however, was much clearer. After years of extraordinary turbulence and bitter strife, the momentum that drove the campaign for Catalonia's independence appears to have subsided. For the first time in more than a decade, pro-independence parties failed collectively to win either a majority of votes, or a majority of seats in the regional parliament.