King of Spain calls new Catalan MPs to avoid “confrontation and exclusion”

The King of Spain focused on the situation in Catalonia in his 10-minute Christmas speech broadcast. Indeed, he referred to the election held in the country on December 21 saying that the newly elected MPs cannot take a path “that leads us again to confrontation and exclusion” because this “generates discord, uncertainty, discourage, and moral, civic and economical impoverishment in the whole society,” he said.

The King of Spain failed to refer to the need of dialogue between Catalonia and Spain mentioned by the deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, the day after the election. He made no mention either of the possibility of a referendum on self-determination, the pro-independence leaders currently in jail, the police violence on October 1 and the majority in the Catalan chamber for a Catalan state.

However, he referred to Spain by saying that it “recognizes and respects” the differences between citizens, but also its “plurality and diversity, with a conciliatory spirit. “Spain is inspired by an inalienable willingness of harmony.” Besides, he emphasized that the recent Catalan crisis “has generated problems of coexistence” and called the new MPs to “respect plurality and think responsibly in the common good.” He also said that the country needs to “recover serenity, stability and mutual respect, in a way that ideas do not separate families and friends.”

King Felipe made also mention of other issues, such as the economy and the corruption in Spain, but overall claimed that Catalonia has played a key role in the state’s situation this year. “2017 in Spain has been, without doubt, a difficult year for our life in common, a year marked, above all, by the situation in Catalonia.”