Catalan separatists are expected to take control of the regional government, the Guardian reports, following exit polls that suggest the nationalist coalition Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) will win between 63 and 66 seats in the 135-seat parliament.

The central government in Madrid has blocked previous attempts to hold a referendum on independence in Catalonia, one of Spain’s wealthiest regions. According to the Guardian, the head of the regional government, Artur Mas, promised that if the separatists won a majority of seats in the election he would initiate the secession process.

To deliver on that promise, the Wall Street Journal reports, Mas will need to negotiate and win the support of another, smaller pro-independence party: the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), which is expected to win between 11 and 13 seats in the Catalan parliament.

The CUP is further left than Junts pel Sí, and leaders in the anti-austerity party have reportedly expressed ambivalence about a business-friendly centrist like Mas being in charge of a secession deal, which CUP also opposes without a majority of the popular vote. (Together, both the Junts pel Sí coalition and CUP received 49.8% of the vote.)

While much of the independence movement has been driven by economic anxieties—according to the New York Times, Catalonia accounts for a fifth of the Spanish economic output—Catalans have their own language and cultural identity. Barcelona, the region’s capital, is also the country’s primary tourist city.

Photo credit: AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.