spanish nationality

Suffrage depends on country of citizenship, not residence, with few exceptions

Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation José Manuel García-Margallo stated this Wednesday that Catalans would not be able to maintain their Spanish nationality or European citizenship in the case of independence. “Catalan people cannot expect to maintain certain attributes and not others” he insisted. Margallo called the Catalans’ idea some sort of “joke” and cited Latin American countries’ independence from Spain and Algeria’s independence as examples. He made such statement after Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, failed to defend the idea that Catalans will lose Spanish nationality (because the Spanish Constitution allows them to keep it as they are Spanish by origin). Referring to this, Catalan President Artur Mas stated that “Spain’s threats turn against them like a boomerang”.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy ran out of arguments this Tuesday when he tried to claim that Catalans would lose their Spanish nationality in the event of Catalonia’s independence. In an interview with Spanish radio station Onda Cero, Rajoy failed to answer when the Spanish journalist Carlos Alsina told him that Spanish nationality “can’t be removed” and that even if Catalonia were to become an independent country, Catalan citizens would keep both their Spanish and European nationality. Rajoy concluded by saying that “such a disquisition was a dead-end”. Catalan Government spokeswoman, Neus Munté, stated that Rajoy exposed himself and made clear that “he doesn’t know the Constitution that they mention and exhibit everywhere”.