The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, believes that the Catalan people are not being oppressed by Spain and that, although their wish to express themselves must be respected, their situation cannot be compared to the countries of the former Yugoslavia.
"In Catalonia we're not facing a problem of human rights because the Catalans (...) are not being oppressed by Spain", said Juncker in statements broadcast today by the Portuguese channel RTP.
Juncker believes that the wishes of the Catalan people must be listened to but said that the "illegal" referendum of 1st October "didn't have a turnout which allows it to be said that the overall will of the Catalan people is what their government claims".
"The Spanish Constitution is very clear on this point. It doesn't foresee a referendum on the separation, as a whole entity, of the Spanish block", said the Commission's president, who added that the Catalan government and, in part, the Parliament, "have left the law".
Asked about the role played by Europe in the Catalan crisis, Juncker said that it's an internal matter and that it's the Spanish that have to "solve this problem". At the same time, he recognised that he wouldn't like a future "European Union composed of 95 different countries".
"We would lose control", said Juncker, who invited "the right, the left, everyone" to "try to reconcile the Catalan point of view and Spanish point of view".