When Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dissolved the Catalan government in October and called for early regional elections , he was hoping that the separatist political parties would be defeated. Instead, the Dec. 21 elections once again resulted in pro-independence parties winning a majority of seats in the Catalan regional parliament. This means that, while Catalonia likely will not secede from Spain anytime soon, the Catalan crisis is far from over. Rather than allowing either side of the conflict to achieve a clear victory, the Dec. 21 vote signals that uncertainty and disagreement will continue into 2018. The centrist, anti-independence party Citizens won the election with 25 percent of the popular vote, which earned it 37 of the 135 seats in the Catalan parliament.