A one-word headline summed up the mood of pro-independence Catalans on Friday morning. "Seguim", declared the daily El Punt Avui, "We go on".

It came on a page one washed in yellow, the colour that has come to represent solidarity with the country's jailed independentistes.

Yellow vexes Spanish authorities so much that earlier this month they banned Catalonia's capital, Barcelona, from bathing the city's foundations in golden light.

El Punt Avui

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El Punt Avui was no doubt trying to set a resolute tone, defying what has become an increasingly absurd authoritarian response from Madrid.

But its splash also underlined that Catalonia's constitutional gridlock continues.

This corner of Iberia remains stuck between those that want full sovereignty and those who want to remain part of Spain. And neither side seem able to take a commanding lead.

Thursday elections were called by the unionist government in Spain after they ignored the results of October's disputed independence referendum.

The pro-independence Yes side won that vote. And Yes won the Catalan poll on Thursday too. Three different slates, all favouring a break with Spain, took most seats, but not most votes.

"Absolute majority," declared another the newspaper, Ara, on its front page on Friday. But the Catalan daily also acknowledged too the rise of staunch unionism. Ciutadans, or C's, which fights for Spanish unity, emerged as the biggest single party in parliament.

Ara

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Confused? There were three slates supporting independence, the liberal JxCat of ousted and fugitive president Carles Puigdemont, the centre left Esquerra and the radical CUP. Together they can command parliament for Yes, or Si.

And there were three slates backing Spain, C's, the less staunchly unionist Socialists and the conservative party of Mariano Rajoy, the PP. They are all "No".

So Yes outnumbers No in parliament. But the three Yes slates don't have a majority of votes. That is because there was also a platform representing parties that are ambivalent or neutral about the constitutional.

In crude percentage terms, Yes may beat No but it does not beat No plus "Mweh". Some of those Mwehs may back independence if there was another referendum. Many support the very idea of independence. But their support is not in the bag.

Hence a confused picture on other front pages as nobody quite managed to fugure out who had won.

La Vanguardia, the prestige Barcelona daily, headlined "C's win but the pro-independeence majority is renewed." Its old rival El Periodico went with "Still more difficult". In a front page editorial, El Periodico talked of a "Catalonia divided".

La Vanguardia

The Herald:

Spanish papers also had their say on the elections. They almost universally marked the surge in support for C's and its leader in Catalonia, Ines Arrimadas.

La Razon, a right-wing Madrid daily, splashed with "Arrimadas achieves historic but insufficient victory." Across the Spanish capital another unionist paper, ABC, described her victory as "historic but bittersweet".

ABC

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