When Josep Borrell joined Pedro Sánchez's government and took on the portfolio of foreign minister, we already predicted that his presence in the Spanish executive would do little to help improve relations with Catalonia. What we didn't know then was that it was going to worsen things by such leaps and bounds and with so many countries. Belgium and Greece have been the two latest states which Borrell has put in his sights. In the first case, over the conflict which has started with the goverment of Flanders, revoking the diplomatic status of the Flemish delegate to Madrid following statements by the speaker of the Flemish Parliament about Catalonia and the political prisoners. In the second, forcing the firing of the Greek consul in Barcelona for having taken part in the huge demonstration on the last Diada (Catalan National Day) on 11th September.
Spain's diplomatic conflict with Flanders is not at all minor and even reached the EU summit held in Brussels where Belgian prime minister Charles Michel gave the Spanish state a wake-up call. In the Flemish Parliament, many speakers even wore the yellow loop and denounced the existing restrictions in Spain regarding freedom of expression after the criticism of the statements by their chamber's speaker.
When Borrell arrived at his ministry in Santa Cruz palace, he said within hours that his main objective would be to revert the image of Spain offered by the Catalan independence movement internationally and end with the anti-democratic "black legend". The politician from La Pobla, quite the specialist in putting out fires by throwing drum after drum of petrol on them, has gone from words to deeds. And whilst García-Margallo had opted for directly buying countries in exchange for preventing the slightest support for the Catalan independence movement, Borrell has decided to go on the attack. Nothing better, he must think, than starting a war with all those who have the slightest sympathy for it. And as the minister isn't daunted by a ruckus and he's got the murky matter of the sale of Abengoa stocks thanks to private information, and the ensuing fine he's been given, hovering around him, he must think that whilst one issue is being discussed, the other isn't.
The problem, in any case, is that the Spanish minister of foreign affairs will be, for some time, anything other than the minister of diplomacy. With Borrell heading the charge, it's assured that diplomacy will be notable in its absence.