Former Spanish consul in Edinburgh admits working against Catalan interests

The former Spanish consul in Edinburgh, Miguel Ángel Vecino Quintana, who was fired by Spain’s foreign affairs minister Josep Borrell in June, said to The National that he never did “anything without orders” from his cabinet.  Vecino Quintana has confirmed that he sent a message in which he accused the minister of giving him “unconstitutional orders”, but has refused to go into details because he has filed a lawsuit in court over the matter.

The former consul wrote to his representatives: “More unjustified and damaging was to prevent a visit from the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce to Barcelona, and another from a delegation of Catalan businessmen to Scotland, so that Catalan businessmen did not contact the Scots”. He also explains that Borrell acted “to prevent the visit of a delegation of all the parties of the Catalan parliament to the Scottish Parliament”, in order to avoid any Catalan presence in Scotland before the April 28 elections.

“They have been very bad to me”, he told the Catalan News Agency. Vecino Quintana justified filing legal action to defend “his honor” that “the ministry left on the ground.” “I have nothing to hide,” he said, noting that he has evidence to defend that he has complied with the orders of the ministry.

Borrell dismissed the ex Spanish consul in Edinburgh last June, after Vecino Quintana stated in a letter that if Scotland achieved independence, it would not have to “wait in line” to join the European Union (EU) as an independent state. Vecino Quintana denied that an independent Scotland should wait “in queue” behind such states as Turkey or Serbia. “Entry into the EU does not depend at all in waiting in a queue,” the consul said in the letter.