The European Union has called for negotiation to arrest building tension in Catalonia and Spain, to avert war situation. This was coming as Agency report announced that Andrés Iniesta ,the team captain Barcelona football club of Spain, which has become a focal point of secessionist Catalan sentiment, urged politicians in Madrid and the Catalan capital to start negotiating about the future of Spain’s restive northeast province.
“The position is very, very alarming. Civil war is conceivable there, in the middle of Europe,” Gunther Oettinger, the Germany EU commissioner said at an event in Munich. The German commissioner’s startling remarks prompted disquiet among EU diplomats.
One told VOA he thought the comments “nonsense.” Oettinger and the EU Commission, the European bloc’s governing body, which fears Catalan independence might stir up separatism elsewhere in Europe, have also urged the authorities in Madrid and Barcelona to start negotiations and to avoid further provocations.
But there are little signs of that happening. Both sides appear to be standing firm in Spain’s worst constitutional crisis since an attempted coup in 1981.
“Before we do ourselves more damage, those in charge must open dialogue with each other. Do it for all of us. We deserve to live in peace,” Andrés Iniesta wrote on his Facebook page, apologizing at the same time for weighing in on “situations that are complex.”
The Barcelona football club captain’s appeal came as a top EU official Thursday warned that the separatist dispute, exacerbated by Catalan secessionists holding an illegal independence referendum Sunday, risks escalating into armed conflict.
