Tourism Minister accuses independence movement of forcing businesses out of Catalonia

Spain's Minister for Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda, Álvaro Nadal, declared on Thursday that the Catalonian independence movement was "forcing" big businesses to move their company headquarters out of Catalonia because of the "huge uncertainty" in the region, a situation he described as "disastrous" for the country's economic stability.

After speaking at a conference in Valladolid on Spain's digital future, the minister was openly critical of those he believes want to "break up Spain for no logical reason", a move that he believes "threatens to undermine the effort and work put in by two generations".

Nadal (pictured) recalled how Spain arrived to the first two industrial revolutions, meaning that past generations had had to make a "huge effort" to turn Spain into the force it is today, and said that this progress was now "threatened" by "incomprehensible and inconceivable rupturist proposals, just like in bygone centuries".

Also on Thursday, the president of the The People's Party of Catalonia (PPC), Xavier García Albiol, voiced his fear that the decision by the Banco Sabadell to move its company headquarters out of Catalonia to Alicante would have a "domino effect", prompting other companies to follow suit.

In a press conference held in the regional Parliament, Albiol described the news as an "economic bombshell" and "very worrying news" and blamed the "instability" in Catalonia on the president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, and the vice-president and leader of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Oriol Junqueras.