Catalan Municipality Declared King of Spain Persona Non Grata


01/26/2016

The king of Spain Felipe VI and any other representative of the Spanish monarchy was unanimously declared persona non grata at the plenary session of the Catalan municipality of Breda. This was stated by representatives of the party "Republican Left of Catalonia» (ERC), reports the newspaper El Mundo.



Rubén Ortega; CC-BY-SA
The authorities decided that the monarch represents the "state, which prevents the free exercise of the Catalans’ right to have a choice."

Party "Republican Left of Catalonia", which seeks to separate the region from Spain, is the most popular in the municipality of Breda. According to its members, the monarchy is an institution whose values are very far from the concept of the equality of citizens.

Municipality of Breda was the first region, which ruled that the King is persona non grata. Earlier, in June 2014 shortly after the abdication of King Juan Carlos I, the municipality proceeded to vote on the issue, but number of deputies was insufficient to support the decision, said the newspaper El Confidencial.

Catalonia is a region in the northeast of Spain, which seeks to secede from the Kingdom. Parliament of Catalonia voted for sovereignty on November 9, 2015. The declaration, which was supported by the majority of members of the parliament, has set a period of eighteen months, during which the north-eastern region shall get free. December 2, Spanish Constitutional Court prohibited the region to declare independence.