British newspaper The Times has published a hard-hitting editorial criticising the approach of the Spanish government to the Catalan independence process, following Sunday's detention in Germany of exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. "Madrid needs to start speaking to its opponents and stop seeking to put them in jail", concludes The Times, conservative newspaper of reference in the United Kingdom, and the oldest in Europe.
The editorial, entitled "Spain again" (paywall access only), views independence as a bad idea. It also points out that the December elections could have been an opportunity for reconciliation, which the Madrid government fudged, as it has done in all its dealings with the pro-independence Catalans, due to its iron-fist policy, which consists only of deploying police and judges against the independence movement.
"Mariano Rajoy has taken no real steps to comprehend why such a significant proportion of Catalans want independence", the editorial affirms, recalling how Spanish police twice searched the private jet of Pep Guardiola, coach of the Manchester City football team, because they feared he was using it to hide Carles Puigdemont.
"In seeking to portray strength, Mr Rajoy's government instead looks panicky. Worse, it is surrendering moral authority to a flippant political movement that, more often than not, does not deserve it," says the British daily, before stating unequivocally that Rajoy needs to "start speaking" to his Catalan opponents, and give up trying to jail them.
On 6th December 2017, the newspaper published another editorial ("Maladroit Madrid") in which it considered that the Catalan elections of 21st December were an opportunity for the Spanish government to restore "part of the reputation it had lost in a clumsy attempt to crush the separatist rebellion". Then in February this year, it focused an editorial on the Catalan issue once again, suggesting that "Madrid should... learn to talk more about pluralism than about sedition", seeing king Felipe's visit to Barcelona as yet another opportunity to change course. Now it has deemed the issue to be grave enough to return to "Spain, again."
The publisher of The Times is News International, subsidiary of the News Corporation group, owned by magnate Rupert Murdoch. Former Spanish PM and Popular Party leader José María Aznar has been a director since 2006.
