The most important international media outlets agree on their analysis: whatever the result of today's Catalan Parliament election, the Catalan crisis needs negotiations, not just to constitute a government and a parliamentary majority, but also to solve the crisis between Catalonia and Spain. The majority of the media, including the news agencies, have written reports letting the supporters of the different parties give their points of view and explain what is at stake.
British news agency Reuters describes the Catalan people as "profoundly divided" and says that any result today will leave few hopes to solve "Spain's worst political crisis in decades". A pro-independence victory "cast doubts over Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s ability to draw a line under" the crisis.
For the correspondent from The New York Times, by calling the election, Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy was "gambling that voters would punish the separatists who had propelled the nation’s worst constitutional crisis in decades" so that he could return self-government to a new unionist majority.
The suggest that if the polls are right, there is a potential for a "fractured result that may prolong the deadlock over the prosperous northeastern region’s status, even if it denies the separatists a victory".
All the outlets note that this election has taken place in "very abnormal" conditions, with the Catalan government subject to intervention from Madrid and the background of the repression of the 1st October referendum and the proclamation of the Catalan republic.
The Guardian, the progressive British daily, sees it similarly: "few expected any dramatic change in a region that is more or less evenly split on the question of secession".
The Financial Times (paywall) predicts that whatever the results may be, "there will follow an intense period of negotiations to form a coalition government and few analysts expect that it will end the political impass of recent months".
A similar conclusion is offered by the conservative British paper The Times. "Analysts have predicted that today’s election may result in a deadlock, leading to extended negotiations to find a new government or even more elections next year. Crucially, even if the pro-independence camp maintains its absolute majority it is not expected to attempt another breakaway from Spain but instead to try to start talks with the Spanish government."
The centre-left Italian newspaper of reference La Repubblica interviews Lucio Caracciolo, editor of the Italian geo-political magazine Limes. "This election won't solve the Catalan question," he says. Caracciolo is confident that "politics cannot be replaced by legal power,