Former president of Slovenia, Milan Kučan, in office when his country "decided for independence", has called on the Spanish government to stop "the use of force and threats of military intervention" against Catalonia.
In a statement, Kučan said that it is "hard in Europe today to accept the use of force and even the threat of arms in an attempt to prevent the Catalonians from exercising the natural right to national self-determination".
For Kučan, "dialogue" is the "only way" out of the current tensions between Madrid and Barcelona. He hopes "that reason and the language of argument will prevail rather than the language of might and force". The ex-president also regrets that, "so far", there has been no such dialogue.
He also notes that the Slovenians, who "exercised our right to self-determination" 25 years ago, "cannot deny [that right] to others if they wish to exercise it by democratic and peaceful means".