King Felipe VI's visit to Catalonia and the significant protests which have taken place both at the institutional level and in the streets have reduced the importance of a news story which, in normal conditions, would have had even greater visibility: the pressure from the Spanish Foreign Affairs ministry to relieve Finland's honorary consul to Barcelona, Albert Ginjaume, of his role. Although no ministry spokesperson has spoken on the topic, the pressures are related to an event held some weeks ago where Ginjaume, as secretary general of the consular body in Catalonia, invited the president of the Deputation of Barcelona and the mayor of Sant Cugat, Mercè Conesa, to their monthly lunch.
It's not clear that the event was particularly tense nor that there were shades of proselytism for the pro-independence cause although, on the other hand, that wouldn't be a reason for the disciplinary measure. The lunch was basically focused on topics of municipal cooperation and only at the end was the political situation in Catalonia discussed. We said it some days ago: the deterioration of freedoms starts to be worrying when fundamental rights are violated. It's been some time since the word "negotiation" withered away; it then progressed to banning talking about dialogue and now they've ended up banning freedom of expression. The objective declared by the Spanish government to switch off as many megaphones as possible for any high-ranking pro-independence official sometimes leads to situations as outlandish as that experienced by Ginjaume.
On the other hand, it's eternally surprising how easily they achieve certain objectives. It's certain that former foreign affairs minister José Manuel García-Margallo warned us about the quantity of favours which Spain owes the governments of different countries after asking them to speak in public against the independence process. But that is worlds apart from pressuring another country to oust an honorary consul for an action as innocuous as extending an invitation to a public official from a pro-independence party. And it does nothing but demonstrate the nervous state international Spanish politics is in, incapable of controlling the conflict's development. You don't have to look any further than this Monday when British newspaper The Times published an editorial calling on Spain to authorise president Carles Puigdemont's return and for the start of a period of dialogue.
We're still far from that point but the newspaper's position isn't unusual among the international media, ever more surprised by the inability of Mariano Rajoy's executive to broach any political contact, however minimal. Thinking that they will change international public opinion by demanding the dismissal of a consul from another country for an invitation to a lunch they didn't like is, really, to not understand anything.