It’s not just Bitcoin that’s in a tailspin on Friday.

Spanish stocks nosedived at the open after three separatist groups won a combined 70 seats out of 135 in the regional parliament in Thursday’s closely-watched snap election. That restores the majority they lost back in October when Rajoy invoked Article 155 in an effort to get rid of the treasonous bastards pushing for independence.

(The Guardian)

Here’s the IBEX:

“As Catalan president, I wish to congratulate people for delivering an indisputable result,” the deposed Carles Puigdemont said from Brussels. “We have won this election in exceptional circumstances, with candidates in prison, with the government in exile and without having the same resources as the state,” he added.

Turnout was a whopping 80% and ultimately, this is a mess. For one thing, it’s not clear what exactly Puigdemont can accomplish from exile even as Junts Per Catalunya cemented its standing as the largest separatist force.

While Ciudadanos won the most votes, other unionist parties (including Rajoy’s People’s Party), might as well have not showed up.

“It’s a bitter victory,” Paloma Morales, a 27-year-old student at a Ciudadanos rally told Reuters, adding that this “means four more years of misery.”

I guess that depends on one’s perspective. Pro-independence voters waved Catalan flags and chanted “President Puigdemont!”, so they’re not “miserable”.

One thing this definitely means is more uncertainty for the EU as this will invariably embolden other independence movements (again), and this just underscores the notion that Rajoy is doing a piss poor job of handling this situation.

The euro got hit but has reversed some of its losses:

“The Catalan news probably was taken as an excuse to sell the euro,” Jun Kato, a senior fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo told Bloomberg overnight, adding that the single currency is “facing profit taking as trading slows in holiday season and toward year-end as the current levels are elevated.”