White House: Catalonia s future is an issue for Spain Catalans to decide

Protestors outside the National Police main police station, in Barcelona, Spain.
Reuters/Susana Vera




White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday the Trump administration would welcome dialogue between Spain and Catalonia's leaders on the region's political future.

"That's up for the people of Spain and Catalonia to decide," Sanders said at the daily White House press briefing, shortly after Catalonia's secessionist president Carles Puigdemont said he would seek dialogue and international mediation rather than an immediate declaration of independence.

The region, which has its own language and complains of a net loss of tax money, held an Oct. 1 independence referendum that was violently suppressed by the central government. Spanish leaders argue secession is illegal under the country's 1978 constitution.

A court suspended the independence vote, but the regional government held an election anyhow and says more than 90 percent of voters favored secession, though turnout was under 50 percent as Spanish police dragged away residents, fired rubber bullets and seized ballots.

Ahead of the vote, President Trump said last month
as he hosted Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy at the White House that he favored a unified Spain, and that he believed most residents of Catalonia would as well if accurate numbers tour khám bệnh were available.