FRANCE SAYS IT WOULDN’T RECOGNIZE AN INDEPENDENT CATALONIA
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BARCELONA France will not recognize Catalonia if its government unilaterally declares independence from Spain, Nathalie Loiseau, the French minister for European affairs, warned Monday, as nerves grew over a likely proclamation in the coming days.
The minister also reiterated warnings that a Catalan Republic would find itself shunned by Brussels.
“If independence were to be recognized — which is not something that’s being discussed — the most immediate consequence would be that ( Catalonia) automatically left the European Union,” she said.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, had already made his position clear in the wake of the Oct 1 referendum — held in defiance of a ban by Spain’s constitutional court — in a telephone conversation with Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, in which he expressed firm support for the “constitutional unity” of Spain.
Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan president, is to appear in the parliament Tuesday to present the results of the Oct 1 vote, and many in the independence movement hope he will make the declaration of secession then.