Key German news magazine Der Spiegel has confirmed the willingness of the country's leadership to intervene in the Catalan-Spanish issue, in the role of a mediator between the both sides. "Spanish nervousness seems justified," says the magazine. "German politicians now want Brussels to intervene in the conflict between Catalonia and Spain. Many parliamentary deputies are even proposing that Berlin should intervene as a mediator." This lends further weight to a similar report yesterday from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the largest newspaper in the country.
Der Spiegel explains that up till now the German government has limited itself to a position of neutrality and has considered the Catalan question as an internal Spanish affair, in accordance with the position of the Spanish executive. But this unity of criteria has been broken because Spain has not solved the conflict by itself, and because the judicial case of Catalan president Carles Puigdemont will now have to be decided in Germany.
According to the German news magazine, the first sign that the policy of the chancellery was changing were the statements made on Friday by German justice minister Katarina Barley, when she announced that her country's government also wanted to discuss the "political aspects" of the Puigdemont case. That is, they want to intervene.
"Barley's proposal to talk about the "political aspects" is very controversial [in Spain]. It means that Berlin is now playing a new tune. Until now the court decision had been kept on the fringe of the political arena and it was considered that the conflict was an internal Spanish affair. But it seems that Barley has now abandoned this line and has increased the pressure on the Spaniards to search for a political solution to the Catalonia conflict. This is, at least, the way her words have been interpreted in Spain", says Der Spiegal.
The magazine clearly assumes that the German justice minister is not simply voicing a personal view, and it echoes Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's report that a growing number of voices within chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party are calling for intervention in the conflict.
According to Der Spiegel, this is the reason for the nervousness of the Spanish government this weekend. "International mediation is the great objective of the Catalans, especially of Carles Puigdemont. Solely if Europe or a powerful state like Germany intervenes in the conflict, will the Catalans have the opportunity to obtain substantial concessions from Madrid. Everybody is conscious of this, and it explains the reaction of the Spanish foreign minister, Afonso Dastis", says the magazine.