EU 'tragic error' on Catalonia - Maroni

(ANSA) - Milan, October 2 - The European Union has made a "tragic error" by washing its hands of the Catalonia referendum issue, Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni said Monday.
    "The EU is acting like Pontius Pilate and trying to ignore a very important issue," said Maroni, a leading member of the once-secessionist Northern League.
    Maroni said the League's October 22 illegal informal consultative referendum on the independence of Lombardy and the neighbouring Veneto region would be a "very different matter indeed".
    After a abandoning secessionist platform, the League under young leader Matteo Salvini has successful shifted to an anti-euro, anti-migrant 'patriotic' and sovereignty-linked stance which is increasingly wooing supporters across Italy.