Stopping the Catalan sovereignty process, that has been the long time goal of the Spanish government, and has now been revealed after the latest statements by former Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García-Margallo. The Partido Popular government has not only tried to stop the growth of the pro-independence movement with the already publicised Operation Catalonia, but has also tried to clip the wings of the international players who have sided with it.
Margallo himself confessed to the scheme on Tuesday, when he said that the Spanish government had secretly negotiated with several governments around the world to stop them taking sides with the independence of Catalonia. “Nobody knows how many favours we owe a number of people for having made their statements,” the former minister admitted.
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Former minister Margallo travelled to the Baltic States up to four times, and not because of “economic interests,” he explained. These countries had been favourable to a new Catalan State and this did not please the government in Madrid, who decided to remedy this with “very specific instructions to ambassadors and consuls to respond to any offensive.” He first went to the Baltic countries, but then also to Canada and the Vatican, the minister said. A practice based on “bribes,” as Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras referred to them, which extended to many other countries, from Andorra to Brussels, through Holland, the United States, Denmark and Israel.
Putting a stop to the Baltic Way
The events go back to 2013, when the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) organised the Via Catalana or Catalan Way, a demonstration on September 11 inspired by the Baltic Way of 1989, when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania mobilised their people to demand the withdrawal by the USSR from their territory. At the time of the event, the prime ministers of Latvia and Lithuania were interviewed by the Catalan News Agency, in which they said they were favourable to the process. The declarations caused a serious diplomatic crisis with Spain and Minister Margallo called the ambassadors of both countries to consultations on the support. Shortly after that, their position changed.
In the case of Lithuania, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius defended the right of each country to “find their way” and assured that all states have their “right to self-determination.” In addition, he was very happy that the example of the Baltic Way should have inspired the Catalans. Two days later, and after a strong controversy, the Lithuanian government evaded the issue by saying there had been a misunderstanding. In a statement, they assured that there had been a “tendentious and erroneous” interpretation of his words. The text was issued just after a meeting between Minister Margallo and the ambassador.
The same thing happened with Latvia. The then Latvian Prime Minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, replied “why not?” to the question of recognition of the independence of Catalonia if it was achieved through a “legitimate process.” After the meeting with Margallo, the Latvian government also changed its tune. “It is a question of Spanish domestic policy that will be dealt with in accordance with Spanish legislation and the Constitution,” said the Latvian communiqué, an almost identical phrase used in the statement Lithuania had made shortly before. In addition, it also spoke of a “biased” interpretation of Dombrovskis’ words, and said that “we appreciate the excellent relations and cooperation with the Kingdom of Spain.”
Up to four visits to the Baltics
The diplomatic crisis, however, went further. At the end of October that year, Margallo embarked on a tour of Poland and the Baltic States. The first of four trips that Margallo made to the area, as he said himself in Tuesday’s interview. Coincidentally, on those dates it was leaked that Spain was investigating whether the support for a Catalan State had been paid for. According to Interviú magazine, a 2014 report allegedly by the Spanish Police Intelligence Unit assured that the statements by the Latvian leader were agreed on and paid for. Nothing further was heard of the report after the publication, but the fact is that public support for the Catalan case by the Latvian leader declined.
So much so that on November 1, 2014 Dombrovskis was appointed Vice-President of the European Commission. The governing Partido Popular, which shares the parliamentary group with Dombrovskis, voted in favour of the proposal for Jean-Claude Juncker’s executive, which included the former Latvian minister. Shortly after that, Dombrovskis changed his tune. In September 2015, the then Vice-President of the European Commission assured that the independence of Catalonia would mean it would fall outside the European Union.
Whether a coincidence or not, at the end of last year came a prize for the Baltics. In October, Spain joined the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission responsible for defence before the provocations by Russia, with combat aircraft deployed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Spain committed to sending combat aircraft —F-18 fighters— during 2017 and 2018. In addition, in February of this year, Spain made a commitment with NATO to send 300 troops to Latvia.
Surveillance by the embassy in Israel
Shortly after the first meeting with the Baltic States in November 2013, the then Catalan President, Artur Mas, began a visit to Israel to launch a scientific cooperation program. He was accompanied by representatives of some thirty Catalan technology companies and the directors of the foremost research centres, as well as the Spanish ambassador to Israel, who did not leave the President’s side one instant.
Ambassador Fernando Cardera was present at all meetings at any level between the Catalan representatives and their Israeli counterparts, took notes of everything, and also imposed the Spanish flag on the wreath the President deposited at the Holocaust Museum.
Ban in the Netherlands
Pressure from the Spanish embassy was also felt in the Netherlands. It was the month of September 2014, when the Cervantes Institute of Utrecht cancelled the presentation of author Albert Sánchez-Piñol’s book Victus, which deals with the War of the Spanish Succession of 1714. They did so after pressure from the embassy, Piñol’s Dutch publisher reported, because they believed it was a “sensitive” conference taking into account the political situation in Catalonia. This was only two months before the non-binding ballot was held on November 9.
The ban caused a strong controversy and Margallo’s ministry was accused of having “censored” the debate. The then president of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, even took part in the controversy and said that the veto was “in line with the international boycott” the Spanish government was applying to Catalonia. The minister denied that there had been a political veto on the book, assuring that he had nothing to do with it, although he stated in a debate in the Spanish Congress that the book was a “nationalist interpretation” of 1714 and that there were many interpretations of the facts.
Crisis with Denmark
In May 2015, the alarms at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs were set off again, this time by Denmark. On 19 May, the Danish parliament approved a motion in favour of a “democratic, peaceful dialogue between Catalonia and Spain to resolve the question of the independence of Catalonia.” It was approved by 64 votes in favour, none against and 41 abstentions.
Just five days later, Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard made a statement next to his Spanish counterpart in which he asserted that there had been a “misunderstanding” with the motion passed in his Parliament and that Denmark “does not wish to interfere in any way” in the matter. In addition, he added that it should be “solved by the Spanish and, of course it goes without saying, in accordance with the Spanish Constitution.” Afterwards, Margallo thanked him for his words, in what was very possibly an agreed interview, as can be seen in the video, and only for Spanish Television and the state news agency EFE.
Off to the States
A few days before the 27th September elections to the Parliament of Catalonia, which the Catalan pro-sovereignty parties considered a plebiscite, King Philip VI and Minister Margallo travelled to the United States. The King met US President Barack Obama and was able to get a statement from him in favour of the union of Spain. We want “a strong and unified Spain,” Obama defended. A translation error, however, made the Spanish strategy tremble for a few moments.
The translator at the meeting between the two leaders mistakenly translated Obama's statement and instead of saying that the US president wanted a “strong and united Spain,” she said he wanted “a strong and united relationship with Spain.” The King’s face showed surprise when he heard the translation was telling of the monarch's concern about the misunderstanding. Just then, he checked the newspapers to make sure they had seen the mistake and had picked up the correct statement.
At the same time, Margallo, who was following the encounter with US Secretary of State, John Kerry, also realised the mistake and later made sure that the journalists present at the Oval Office had got the statement tight.
Two months earlier, in July 2015, the Spanish Congress had approved the switching of the status of the US military base at Móron de la Frontera in Andalusia from temporary to permanent, thus becoming the Pentagon’s centre of operations for the whole of Africa. As a result of this agreement, the maximum number of US troops in Spain was also increased, from 850 to almost 3,000 (of which 80% are military personnel and the rest civilians). An agreement, which meant that US military presence in Spain was multiplied fourfold in just eight years.
To the Vatican, twenty times
Another of the destinations Margallo confessed he had visited to stop the Catalan process was the Vatican. He may in fact have travelled to the Holy See up to twenty times, according to the Minister in an interview with online newspaper El Español in 2015. The last time was in September 2016, shortly before being relieved of his position with Prime Minister Rajoy’s government shuffle after his last inauguration.
On that occasion Margallo met the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher, and handed him a letter explaining the reasons for the Spanish refusal to accept the Catalan independence. The meeting also addressed the effects of a unilateral referendum on independence and Margallo presented the criticism of the Catalan efforts around the world to defend the process.
The visit of the Foreign Minister to the Vatican, and the fact that he delivered a letter against the process, irritated the Catalan Government. Foreign Minister Raül Romeva reprehended Margallo for not acting as everyone’s minister when attacking the Catalan process around the world.
Andorra too
Just after the meeting with Margallo, Archbishop Gallagher travelled to Andorra, which was interpreted as an odd triangle between Madrid, the Vatican and the country in the Pyrenees. It is there where the Foreign Operation links with Operation Catalonia once again.
The visit came about just as Andorran Justice was investigating whether there had been threats against the major shareholders of private bank Banca Privada d’Andorra within the so-called Operation Catalunya. Shortly before, Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had sent his Chief of Staff Jorge Moragas and the Secretary of State for Commerce Jaime García Legaz to Andorra to demand the owners of the Bank hand over details of former Catalan President Pujol’s accounts there. Rajoy himself had visited the country that that year in January 2016.
The “no comments” from the EU
Furthermore, there is no doubt Margallo and Spanish diplomacy’s footfalls are heard in the European institutions. In 2012, the then European Commission President, José Manuel Durão Barroso, and his spokesman spoke openly about the possibility of an independent Catalonia and how it should go about joining the European Union.