Flare up after flare up. Josep Borrell spent his 16 month tenure as Spanish foreign minister jumping from one heated controversy to the next. Sometimes, he then tried to put out the fire and managed it, but on other occasions the flames spread beyond Spanish borders. Now ratified as the European Union's head of diplomacy in the new Von der Leyen commission, Borrell's period in the Spanish executive will be remembered for his leadership of a crusade against the Catalan independence movement, the incidents in which he sparked international tensions and for more than one tantrum which made the front pages.

On Friday afternoon, he left his office in Madrid after his final cabinet meeting; now, he takes up the role of EU high representative for foreign affairs from 1st December. His current job passes provisionally into the hands of the acting defence minister, Margarita Robles. Borrell commented on Thursday that he was "especially satisfied" with the work done, at the launch of a book compiling the articles he's written during his time as a minister.

But you don't have to look very hard or very far to confirm that Borrell's greatest concern since taking office a year and a half ago has been to project the image of a unified Spain and its territorial integrity. That was shown by his constant persecution of the Catalan government's foreign policy, with the Catalan High Court this week suspending the opening of three new Catalan government offices abroad after accepting the Spanish ministry's arguments. Borrell has pressed every button within his reach, has vetoed senior officials and broken more than one institutional relationship.

The anti-independence process

Borrell has not rested in his persecution of Catalan government offices abroad and has presented legal cases on their opening to the Catalan High Court. He has always asserted that the Catalan obligation is to "comply with the law of Spanish Foreign Action" and in more than one interview, has stated that the Catalan foreign ministry under Alfred Bosch has the sole objective of "promoting the theses of secessionism".

The most controversial action by the minister that has come to light was the espionage activity which went on for months at the Catalan government's London, Geneva and Berlin offices. Borrell ordered the Spanish embassies of the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany to closely monitor and make reports on the efforts of the Catalan delegations and Alfred Bosch to give foreign projection to the independence process. Based on this information, a report was produced which served as evidence for the state lawyer to request the Catalan court to suspend the activity of the offices. The document included information on meetings, events and even calls.

The scandal did not take long to spread across the continent, even reaching the British House of Commons, where Hywel Williams, of the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru, warned that British MPs had been "spied on" by Spanish government agents, which he considered "shameful."

Another Borrell offensive against the Catalan process was spread via Global Spain, the Spanish foreign ministry's PR unit. Global Spain prepared a 70-page dossier of arguments "to combat the pro-independence theses". Following this campaign, the PR unit has also released videos and graphic material to convince the world that the long prison sentences given to pro-independence leaders for sedition were fair.

Just as much noise was generated by the foreign minister's mobilization of a group of French academics to reply to the manifesto published by 41 French senators in support of rights and liberties in Catalonia. The ministry published a text in which it argued that Spain is a democracy and asked the French senators "to recognize the reality of Spanish democracy and the independence of the Spanish Supreme Court."

Voici la réponse aux sénateurs français signataires de la lettre «Pour le respect des libertés et des droits fondamentaux en #Catalogne». Une clarification contre la désinformation en la matière et sur les droits et les libertés de tous les citoyens en #Espagne. pic.twitter.com/y6CFL3u4GM — Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 29, 2019

Boycotts against international contacts

Spanish diplomacy also lobbied to prevent a Scottish trade mission to Catalonia and a trip by Catalan businesspeople to Edinburgh. Prior to that, Spain had vetoed a visit from the Parliament of Catalonia to Scotland before the 28th April general election. The former Spanish consul in Edinburgh - now sacked - Miguel Ángel Vecino was ordered by the Spanish foreign ministry to prevent this trip. He did so against his will.

Meanwhile, Borrell's chief of staff asked Vecino to try and ensure that the Catalan businessmen travelling to Scotland on the planned commercial trip would not be independence supporters. Faced with the then-consul's refusal, Borrell's assistant said that "to avoid surprises" the consulate would have "to prevent this visit and any other". The Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce was wanting to improve economic ties with Spain with an initial trip to Barcelona, ​​but the former consul dissuaded it from this idea by warning that the Scottish body might have "difficulties" later in being received by other Spanish chambers of commerce.

Consuls fired and relationships broken

The breaking of diplomatic links has been part of Borrell's modus operandi in his time as Spanish foreign minister. Controversy was generated by the expulsion of the honorary Greek consul to Barcelona and ​​the Flanders government's delegate in Spain as well as the Spanish consul in Edinburgh. None of the three sackings was for professional reasons, but rather, because of the opinions expressed in relation to Catalonia.

Greece's honorary consul had diplomatic status withdrawn for "disrespect of the flag of Spain" for having attended a demonstration on Catalan National Day, the Diada. The delegate of the government of Flanders suffered the same fate, after statements made by the speaker of the Flemish Parliament in which he claimed that the fact that there were political prisoners in Spain meant that the state was "unable to fulfill the necessary conditions to be part of a democratic Europe," while the final nail in the coffin for the Spanish general consul in Edinburgh was his assertion that an independent Scotland could return to the EU.

Further scandals

The shadow of Borrell's controversies in the months of his ministerial role is long. Among the most memorable was the spectacle he created during an interview on German television when he wanted to walk out after veteran journalist Tim Sebastian presented him with statistics saying that most Spanish people wanted to reform the country's constitution. Likewise, he was scarcely "diplomatic" in a university debate when he expressed the view that there were no political integration problems in the US because of the country's "short history" in which "the only thing they did was kill a few Indians."

Last month he vetoed - for the second time - the presence of the Catalan government in the Union for the Mediterranean forum. As they had already done in 2018, the Spanish government and the Union for the Mediterranean decided not to invite Catalan president Quim Torra to the forum in order "not to give him an opportunity to keep vilifying Spain's good name".

And beyond Spanish borders, the Russian foreign ministry summonsed the Spain's Moscow ambassador to express surprise and disappointment at Borrell's statements in an interview where he referred to relations with Russia: "our old enemy", said Borrell, speaking of relations that were "not friendly".

Repeatedly rebuked

The slaps on the wrist for the Spanish politician have been continual. The most recent was from the European Commission spokesperson Mina Andreeva, who censored Borrell when, already confirmed in his new EU role, he had disclosed confidential information on the British police record of the exiled Catalan politician Clara Ponsatí.

Josep Borrell's name has also appeared in the headlines of leading world media, on stories which have been far from complimentary. The New York Times questioned the choice of Borrell as the head of European diplomacy and revealed some of his dirty laundry. The European newspaper Politico asserted that Borrell's disputes with countries like the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom or Israel could be a handicap in taking up his new position. The article noted that he has a "decidedly undiplomatic relish for conflict" and mentioned his presumed use of insider information to allow a family member to profit when he was a board member to energy company Abengoa.

"He is a minister who has started fires wherever he has gone," said Catalan government spokesperson, Meritxell Budó, when Borrell was nominated to be the new high representative for European diplomacy. The minister said at the time that the narrative that Borrell propagated on Catalonia - that it was a Spanish internal affair - has failed and, contrary to his intentions, the Catalan conflict has clearly become part of a European-scale debate.

And now, the debate on Borrell himself is no longer an internal matter for Spain - but one for the whole of Europe.