Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, chaired yesterday in Madrid a meeting with the ambassadors of the countries of the European Union, in the course of which, according to her own words, “internal Spanish issues” were not addressed, in reference to the pardons granted by the Government to nine Catalan pro-independence leaders.
As she explained during the joint press conference with her Panamanian counterpart, Erika Mouynes, it was “the traditional meeting of ambassadors when an EU Presidency ends” and, therefore, “it was called by the Portuguese Presidency as the last closing act”. “The objective was to talk about the EU’s external action and no internal Spanish issues were discussed”, she added.
Asked about the trip of the president of the PP, Pablo Casado, to Brussels to transfer the rejection of his formation to the pardons to those convicted for the procés, the minister merely warned that “Spain needs the leader of the opposition working in Spain to seek solutions to Spain’s problems, it does not need the leader of the opposition commenting on Spain’s problems outside Spain”.
Pablo Casado participated yesterday in the meeting of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Brussels, at the end of which he told the media that “the problem in Spain regarding independentism is also a European problem”.
“If independence is given carte blanche in Spain it will be a problem for Italy, for Romania or for France because the Europe of the regions is the Europe of the United States and territorial integrity is the basis of all international legislation, not only in Europe but also in the United Nations”, he added. The leader of the PP also took advantage of his trip to the EU capital to meet with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, among other personalities.
