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Spain: Sanchez, Casado clash on Catalonia during TV debate

The independence issue took center stage as Spain's leading politicians debated the Catalan separatist movement ahead of Sunday's vote. At the same time, Spanish King Felipe VI faced protests while visiting Barcelona.

A worker moves a giant portrait of the Spanish socialist candidate Pedro Sanchez at the end of his general election campaign rally

Spain's acting prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has clashed with his election rivals in a tense televised debate on Monday evening over how to handle Catalonia's independence drive.

The debate saw leaders of Spain's key parties, including Sanchez's Socialists, Pablo Casado's conservative People's Party (PP), the far-right Vox, the far-left Unidas Podemos and Ciudadanos, clash over Madrid's policy in Catalonia ahead of Sunday's general election.

Read more: Catalan protesters: 'We want to make a point'

Casado accused Sanchez of being too soft in his response to the ongoing unrest, and decried political alliances between the ruling Socialists and separatist parties. The conservative politician also repeatedly asked Sanchez if he believed that Spain was a multinational state and if Catalonia was a nation.

"You don't believe in the Spanish nation," Casado said.

'Permanent coup d'etat'

While Sanchez did not provide a direct answer, he referenced Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy, which refers to regions and nationalities. He pledged to alter the law to make clear that organizing an illegal referendum was a crime.

Sanchez also urged Casado to show "humility and self-criticism," reminding him that Catalonia held two independence referendums while the conservatives were in power.

The leader of the far-right Vox blamed both the Socialists and the People's Party for botching the response to the Catalan crisis.

"There's a permanent coup d'etat in Catalonia," said Vox leader Santiago Abascal.

One-third still undecided

Sanchez's Socialists are leading the polls ahead of Sunday's vote. However, none of the parties are expected to win an outright majority and one-third of Spanish voters are still undecided. A previous election in April produced a stalemate, with lawmakers unable to form a ruling coalition.

Spain's right-wing parties have gained ground with the recent uptick of violence, which saw Catalan protesters throw stones and Molotov cocktails at police.

Watch video 02:33

Messaging apps mobilize Catalan protesters

Anti-royal protests in Barcelona

Spain's King Felipe VI and several members of the royal family traveled to Catalonia on Monday to attend an award ceremony, prompting protests. Some 2,000 people took to the streets of Barcelona in the evening, with some burning pictures of the monarch and chanting "go away!"

At the event, Felipe called for calm.

"In today's reality there can't be room for violence, intolerance or contempt for the rights of others," he said while giving a speech in Catalan. 

The heir to the throne, 14-year-old Princess Leonor, also made her Catalan-speaking debut at the ceremony. "Catalonia will always have a special place in my heart," she said in her second public speech.

Roughly half of the Catalan population is in favor of seceding from Spain, according to official surveys.

  • Romulus and Remus statue in Merida (picture-alliance/Prisma Archivo)

    Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

    A Roman province

    The Romans had several provinces with Hispania in their names on the Iberian Peninsula. Modern Spain also encompasses such wide cultural diversity that the Spanish themselves speak of Las Espanas (The Spains). The country in its present form was never united under a single ruler until after the 1702-14 War of the Spanish Succession.

  • Spanien Madrid Demonstration gegen Unabbhähigkeit Kataloniens (Getty Images/AFP/J. Soriano)

    Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

    A nation of regions

    Spanish nationalism is strong in many regions, with former kingdoms such as Aragon largely content to be recognized as part of the Spanish nation-state. Asturias has its own language, but takes pride in its role as the birthplace of the Reconquista, or the taking back of Iberia from the Moors. Spanish nationalism was evident in recent years in Madrid in response to Catalonia's referendum.

  • Spanien Referendum Katalonien Demonstration (picture-alliance/Zumapress/M. Oesterle)

    Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

    Bloodied fingers

    Catalonia has long battled for independence. Its flag, the Senyera, is very similar to that of Aragon, to which it once belonged. The design is fabled to represent four bloodied fingers of Count Wilfred the Hairy being passed over a gold shield. Catalans were fairly happy with their situation until a court struck down the region's statute of autonomy in 2006 and support for independence grew.

  • tomato fight in Bunol (picture-alliance/Gtresonline)

    Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

    No great appetite

    Valencianismo, or Valencian nationalism, sprang out of the Renaixenca, an early-19th-century rebirth of the Catalan language, of which Valencian is just one variant. However, nationalist sentiment is not widespread in the region, which is home to Spain's Tomatina tomato-throwing festival. The Valencian Nationalist Bloc usually gets about 4 percent of the vote for the autonomous parliament.

  • Spain: Mallorca

    Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

    Other Catalan territories

    The Balearic Islands — Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Formentera — all speak variants of Catalan. Though there is a greater nationalist feeling on the islands than in Valencia, it is still more subdued than in Catalonia. Meanwhile, La Franja, a strip of Catalan-speaking land in Aragon, was split by the independence referendum, though most residents do not advocate self-determination for themselves.

  • Spain ETA symbols (Getty Images/AFP/R. Rivas)

    Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

    The Basque Country

    Because of terror attacks by the ETA militant group, Basque separatists used to make the headlines far more often than Catalonia's independence movement. Separatists consider the Basque Country in France and Spain and the region of Navarre to be one nation. About a third of people want full independence, but most want more autonomy. A referendum proposed in 2008 was ruled illegal.

  • Historic map of Galicia (picture-alliance/dpa/Luisa Ricciarini/Leemage)

    Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

    The Galician cause

    Although it was the birthplace of the centralist dictator Francisco Franco, Galicia has the strongest tradition of separatism after Catalonia and the Basque Country. Even Spain's mainstream national parties display a streak of Galicianism in the region. Perhaps as a result, starkly nationalist parties receive a lower share of the regional vote.

  • Spain Alhambra (picture-alliance/blickwinkel/K. Thomas)

    Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

    From caliphate to community

    The Arabic name al-Andalus originally refers to the areas of the Iberian Peninsula that were under Moorish rule for 760 years. As Christians reconquered territories, the area known as Andalusia shrank southwards. Most Andalusians voted for autonomy after Franco died in 1975, but there is little appetite for full independence.

    Author: Richard Connor


dj/cmk (Reuters, EFE, AP, dpa)

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