The BBC has published in English an interview with Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, in which he recognizes Catalonia as a nation — he is himself a Catalan —, but at the same time considers that the Catalan nation should be denied the human right of self-determination by Spain, since, from the Spanish point of view, this is not a «self-determination» of Catalonia, but a «secession» of Spain. Already on July 15, 2018, he had denied on the occasion of the farewell event of the summer school of the ideologically right-wing «Societat Civil Catalana» that the human right of peoples to self-determination was internationally recognized. The Spanish foreign minister, known as right-wing hardliner, likes to talk about Spain having to disinfect its «wound» in Catalonia, and that the Catalans may be glad that Spain does not react to its quest for sovereignty as it did — in the Spanish Civil War with military, logical and financial support from Adolf Hitler — in the Franco era.
In the interview, the Spanish Foreign Minister emphasizes that he would rather see the political prisoners at liberty, but points to the alleged independence of the Spanish judiciary. Whether one will still believe this fairytale outside of Spain?