The Spanish embassy in Athens said on Tuesday it is “grateful” for comments made by Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos and the country’s foreign ministry over the weekend in response to the Catalonia vote in favour of independence. In a statement the Spanish embassy said it “regretted that the ambassador’s comments were misinterpreted.” The statement came after Madrid stressed that the ambassador’s comments were “totally out of the line” of the official government.
“The Embassy of Spain is grateful for the comments of the government spokesman and the declaration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last weekend in favor of the territorial integrity of Spain, as well as rejecting unilateral actions that undermine the unity of the country and the principle of intangibility of borders,” the embassy said.
Regarding the statements of Ambassador Enrique Viguera last weekend to newspaper “Eleftheros Tipos”, the embassy said that “he regrets that they have given rise to interpretations that in no way correspond to reality, nor to his desire to work in a constructive manner in favor of a close and straight relationship with the Greek authorities”.
“Our two countries, allies and friends, are united by strong bonds of friendship and culture and this Embassy will do everything possible to deepen this extraordinary relation that unites us,” it added.
According to Greek media, the Spanish Foreign Ministry described Viguera’s comments as “faux pas”, expressed its sadness about the comments and “reprimanded” the ambassador.
In his interview to Elefteros Typos, Viguera sharply criticized the Greek government claiming it did not support Spain’s integrity as it should. Moreover, he took sides with Greece’s main opposition party, conservative New Democracy for having criticized the government on the Catalonia issue.
Read also: Greek Foreign Ministry in spat with Spanish ambassador over Catalonia
The Greek Foreign Ministry issued a sharp statement calling on the Spanish ambassador to revoke his statements and said “the ambassador has crossed the diplomatically tolerated lines.”
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