Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa has praised the inflammatory speech given by Spanish king Felipe VI on 3rd October 2017, two days after the Catalan independence referendum. Vargas Llosa didn't hesitate to applaud the "energetic speech" in which the Spanish monarch "confronted the separatist attempt in Catalonia". He was speaking at a ceremony commemorating the 40th anniversary of the current Spanish Constitution, with the monarch himself present.
The Nobel laureate, who gave the most political speech of the day, said that Spain's last 40 years have been characterised by "democracy, legality and liberty" and have been the "best thing that has happened to Spain and the best thing it's done".
Vargas Llosa also spoke about the victims of ETA and praised the "very important role" played by the Crown. He suggested that constitutional reform is now possible, as long as it aims to "increase freedoms" and be "prudent". He warned of the risk he sees as being posed by political "fanaticism".
The writer was speaking at the inauguration of an exhibition on the 40 years of the Spanish Constitution at Madrid's Casa de América.