As the debate surrounding Catalonia’s illegal referendum on independence continues, there is a need to focus on what is truly at issue. On Tuesday night, in his first institutional speech since ascending to the Spanish throne in 2014, King Felipe VI did precisely that. His remarks were short and to the point. The Catalonian regional officials who pushed the referendum, he said, “have tried to break Spain’s unity and national sovereignty, which is the right of all Spanish people to democratically decide on their life together.”

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