Together for Catalonia

Fugitive Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has left Spain for Belgium after briefly addressing supporters in Barcelona, his party said Friday, raising questions over how he was able to evade arrest again.

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont said on Monday that he would seek to form a pro-independence minority government in the Spanish region despite a weekend electoral setback.

Spain's governing Socialist Party won a regional election in Catalonia on May 12, snatching away separatist parties' majority.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialists are hoping to show Catalonia has turned away from its independence fixation by winning Sunday's regional vote and defeating separatist leader Carles Puigdemont.

When the polls open at 9:00 a.m. (07:00 GMT), the wealthy northeastern region of some eight million people will vote for 135 deputies to the Catalan parliament.

The Catalan Republican Left (ERC), the party of regional Prime Minister Pere Aragons, wrote a letter on Monday to the centre-right Together for Catalonia (JxCAT) party, led by former exiled Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont.