27.09.2017 - 13:26
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Actualització: 27.09.2017 - 13:28
Donald Trump might have disappointed the Spanish government after the joint press conference that he offered along with the Spanish president. Mariano Rajoy met the US president at the White House only five days before the referendum on independence planned in Catalonia for October 1. After the meeting, it was widely expected that the American leader would support Madrid’s position over the Catalan vote. However, he was not as clear as he could have been.
“Nobody knows if they are going to have a vote. The [Spanish] president would say they are not having a vote but I think that the people would be very much opposed to that,” he said. “I can say only speaking for myself that I would like to see Spain continue to be united,” added Trump. He did not say whether, according to him, Catalans have the right to self-determination or whether citizens should be allowed to vote on October 1.
What he did say is that the relationship between Catalonia and Spain is a long-lasting conflict. “I’ve been watching that unfold but it’s actually been unfolding for centuries,” he claimed. It is not the first time that Spanish diplomacy has received a message from an American head of State. In 2015, only 11 days before the September 2015 Catalan election, the then US president Barack Obama said that his administration was “deeply committed to maintaining a relationship with a strong and unified Spain.” He did not disclose whether Catalonia had the right to have their say or to vote over independence.
