SPAIN’s top diplomat in Scotland has been sacked after his letter about his Government’s position on an independent Scotland becoming a EU member was published by The National.
Miguel Angel Vecino Quintana, the Spanish Consul General in Edinburgh, was dismissed from his post after the letter appeared in our paper, according to a Madrid newspaper.
READ MORE: Spain: We will not block independent Scotland’s EU membership
El Confidencial said the dismissal was not because of the contents of the letter, but because such a statement should have been made by the most senior Spanish diplomat in the UK – the ambassador in London. It also suggested there may have been other unrelated issues behind his removal.
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Quintana said in his letter the Spanish Government would not block an independent Scotland’s membership of the EU and it would not have to wait in a queue. The document was obtained under freedom of information by The National and published on Thursday.
It was written to a senior executive on The Herald on April 16 in response to an article published that day and which reported on comments by Spanish opposition MEP Esteban Gonzalez Pons. Pons said his party would veto Scotland’s EU membership if independence happened before Brexit, and that Scotland would have to wait in a queue behind Turkey and Serbia to join the EU if independence happened after Brexit.
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