King Felipe sees Catalonia as 'serious concern' in Christmas message

King Felipe has Catalonia in the list of top worries, at least according to his customary Christmas message, made public on Tuesday at 9pm local time.

After mentioning the new technological era, the future of the EU, migration, gender gap, climate change, the job market and distrust with the institutions, the Spanish head of state said that "of course Catalonia" is another "serious concern" for Spaniards.

Immediately afterwards, he mentioned that Spain is now en route to pick a new president – Pedro Sánchez's bid to stay in power is subject to the support of pro-independence Esquerra Republicana, with which it is holding talks and might seal a deal in the coming days.

While Felipe VI made no more explicit mention to the Catalonia crisis, he did call for everyone to have "respect to the Constitution" in order to "preserve" the unity of Spain.

The monarch also expressed his "desire for harmony" in the country and mentioned responsibility, affection, generosity, dialogue and "respect between people of very different ideologies" as main contributors to reach the harmony between citizens.

Yet, during his sixth Christmas message, he did not further develop the need of dialogue.

Roughly two and a half months after the guilty verdict on the pro-independence leaders, Felipe VI also made clear that, according to him, Spain is "a social and democratic state governed by the rule of law".

He ended his speech, fully in Spanish, by wishing a merry Christmas in Basque, Catalan and Galician.