The State Department on Friday said it wants Spain to remain “strong and united” after a regional government voted in favor of secession on Friday.
The State Department’s endorsement of the Spain’s central government came after a Friday vote in the Catalan parliament to declare independence, which touched off a new political crisis in Western Europe.
“The United States enjoys a great friendship and an enduring partnership with our NATO Ally Spain,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “Our two countries cooperate closely to advance our shared security and economic priorities. Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government’s constitutional measures to keep Spain strong and united.”
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has denounced the independence movement as illegal and asked his legislature to give him the authority to stifle the effort. “I call on all Spaniards to remain calm,” Rajoy tweeted Friday. “The rule of law will restore legality to Catalonia.”
The internal Spanish dispute has broader significance, as European leaders are trying to maintain political unity. The European Union took a blow when the United Kingdom voted to withdraw, while some eastern European countries have been critical of the EU efforts to punish Russia for invading Ukraine.
Russia is suspected of stoking the split in Spain. “Sentiment on the issue of secession has run fierce here for the past five years, but lately, suspected Russian mouthpieces Assange and Edward Snowden — as well as Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik — have been throwing fuel on the fire, tweeting out provocative messages by the hundreds over the past week,” according to a Yahoo News report. “Every time the government shuts down a voting app, Assange tweets a link to a new one.”
A leading Russian lawmaker warned Friday of conflict between the two sides. “It seems the game of nerves with an unpredictable outcome has begun, when the return to the use of force is possible,” Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of a parliamentary foreign affairs committee, wrote Friday, according to state-run media. “I believe that both parties have made mistakes, and now their willingness to come to terms is less than a week ago, when there were preconditions for achieving agreements.”
