Spanish PM: 'If I was May, I would call a second referendum'

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has become the most significant European leader to call for a second vote on Brexit and lamented the UK’s decision to give into “self-absorption”.

“If I was Theresa May, I would call a second referendum – no doubt,” Sánchez told Politico.

Sánchez said the UK’s exit from the EU would be a mutually painful affair and urged May’s government to hold another vote to enable re-entry in the future.

“It’s true that we’re now on the verge of signing a transition deal,” he said.

“[But] I’d like to see the British government calling a second referendum. I don’t mean now, but in the future, so that it can come back to the EU. In another way, but back into the EU.”

Sánchez said that while the UK was a “marvellous country” that had had a “positive influence” on European politics, it had decided on a path of “self-absorption which isn’t going to be good either for the UK or for Europe”.

“I believe it’s a great loss for both and I hope it can be reconsidered in the future,” he added.

The prime minister said that the strength of public opposition to Brexit could be seen in the “hundreds of thousands of demonstrators” who took part in the People’s Vote march last month and in the renewed push for a second referendum on Scottish independence.

Sánchez, who is grappling with the issue of Catalan independence in the wake of last year’s unilateral, illegal referendum on seceding from Spain, added: “All these kinds of referendums do is fragment … and polarise societies.”

His intervention makes him the third European leader to call for another vote.

In September, Joseph Muscat, the Maltese prime minister, told the BBC Today programme that there was “almost unanimous” support among EU leaders for Britain to hold another vote on leaving.

The Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, also told the programme: “It would be better maybe to make another referendum and maybe the people in the meantime could change their view.

Sánchez told Politico that his government wanted negotiators to secure a pragmatic divorce deal that also “prioritises the general interest of the ensemble of the EU”.

“We’re now closer to an agreement than three weeks ago and let’s hope therefore that we can reach an agreement in December,” he said.

The prime minister echoed assurances that Spain would uphold the rights of the hundreds of thousands of Britons living in the country even in the event of a no-deal Brexit. May has offered a similar promise to EU citizens living in the UK.

“I appreciate and thank very much prime minister May’s commitment to safeguarding those rights,” said Sánchez. “We will do the same with the 300,000 Britons who’re in Spain.”