Catalan independence push sparks European concern

BRUSSELS: Spain’s EU partners fear a mounting crisis over Catalans’ latest push for independence and their public support for Mariano Rajoy belies some disquiet that the conservative prime minister’s hardline tactics might backfire.

Few foreign leaders will speak out on a domestic dispute in which government and courts in Madrid say the Catalan regional authorities in Barcelona are defying a constitutional ban on secession by preparing an independence referendum for October 1.

The official EU line is that Spanish democracy works and Spaniards should settle their affairs according to national laws. But the worsening stand-off, with police arresting elected Catalan officials this week, is troubling officials and politicians abroad, who fear it may hurt Europe in various ways.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, through a spokesperson, echoed that line when asked if she had had recent contact on the matter with Rajoy, a fellow conservative. While stressing it was an “internal Spanish matter”, the spokesperson also recalled that Merkel had in previous years told Rajoy that Berlin had “great interest in the maintenance of stability in Spain”.

Less constrained by diplomatic protocol, other Europeans are starting to speak out: “Rajoy has put a lot of oil on the fire, fuelling the independence debate.

“He has made a huge mistake,” said Ska Keller, the German co-leader of the Greens in the European Parliament. –