"Catalonia is not Scotland" : Rajoy

 

PM Mariano Rajoy rejected comparisons between Catalonia and Scotland with regards to the holding a referendum on independence from the U.K., saying he didn't discuss the matter during his meeting with the David Cameron yesterday.

"The situation is absolutely and totally different and was not discussed during the meeting," Rajoy told reporters after meeting with the British prime minister at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid. "The U.K.'s prime minister and parliament have taken the decision they considered appropriate in line with their laws."

Cameron and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond agreed last year to a referendum on independence to be held in Scotland in Autumn 2014, raising the prospect of the end of the U.K. after more than 300 years. The pro-independence Scottish National Party government is seeking legal advice on the status of Scotland's EU membership should it leave the U.K.

Pro-independence parties in Catalonia won a regional election last year, opening a tussle over autonomy with Rajoy's ruling Partido Popular in Madrid. The Spanish region of Catalonia sees itself as culturally different from the rest of Spain, and has its own language. Rajoy says a referendum would be unconstitutional and that Catalonia would lose EU membership as a separate sovereign state.