Oviedo (Spain), Oct 21 (AFP) Spanish King Felipe VI, inan unusually emotional speech, has said his nation was facingan "unacceptable secession attempt" by Catalonia, insistingthe region remains an essential part of Spain.
"We do not want to give up that which we have builttogether," he said yesterday, adding that the country hadovercome "the mistakes of the past" -- in an apparentreference to Spain's former military dictatorship.
"In recent decades Spaniards have continued our history,honouring our sovereign decision to live together indemocracy," he said at the Princess of Asturias Awards,Spain's answer to the Nobel prizes.
"We have lived and shared successes and failures,triumphs and sacrifices, which have united us in joys andsufferings. We can not forget it."Spain's achievements have been made possible by "asincere desire for coexistence and understanding in compliancewith the rules and rules of democracy", he added.
After Catalonia held a banned independence referendum onOctober 1 -- sparking Spain's worst political crisis since itemerged from dictatorship in 1977 -- Felipe had branded theseparatist drive illegal and thrown his weight behind thenational government. (AFP)CK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.