State Department to Newsmax: US Says No Catalonia Independence, Yes to "United Spain"

Hours after the final election results came in from Catalonia, Spain, Friday morning, in which forces favoring the province’s independence from Spain won an absolute majority in the state parliament, the U.S. State Department made clear to Newsmax that it wanted an end to the secessionist movement that threatens a united Spain.

"We continue to support a strong and united Spain, and look forward to continued cooperation with the Spanish government" a State Department spokesman told us.

Pressed for further comment on the claim of former Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont that the capture of a majority of seats points to a renewal of the province’s secessionist movement that led to his indictment and flight to Brussels, the spokesman said without hesitation: "The vote in Catalonia is an internal matter for Spain."

In an obvious rebuke to Puigdemont’s boast that the capture of a majority of parliamentary seats by three pro-independence parties was a "slap in the face" to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the spokesman added: "We continue to support a strong and united Spain and look forward to continued cooperation with the Spanish government."

Puigdemont’s Junts per Catalunya Party and two other pro-independence parties captured 70 out of 135 seats in the Catalonian Parliament and speculation immediately began that the former Catalonian president (equivalent to a state governor in the U.S.) will reclaim his old job in triumph. However, Puigdemont and seven other deputies face charges of sedition, rebellion, and misuse of public funds and would face arrest and imprisonment upon setting foot in Catalonia.

"And to vote for a president, they have to be there—not in exile, or in jail," a journalist in Madrid told us.

"And there are other problems for the [pro-independence movement]," Javier Rupérez, former Spanish ambassador to the U.S. told Newsmax, "Yes, they won 70 seats in the parliament but that number is down from 72 in the last election. And the Citizens Party, which is strongly pro-united Spain and against secession, got the most votes of any party.

"This is not the ‘mandate’ [Puigdemont] is trying to make it out to be."

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.