Ex-Catalan leader’s bid to rule from abroad ‘absurd’: Spanish PM
Madrid, (MILLAT ONLINE):Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday denounced as “absurd” the idea that ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont could govern from Belgium where he is in self-imposed exile to avoid arrest.
“It is absurd to pretend to be the president of a region when you live abroad, and even more absurd to pretend that you are carrying out this function from abroad,” Rajoy said in his end-of-year press conference in Madrid.
His remarks came a week after Catalan separatist parties claimed victory in a divisive snap election.
Madrid had called the poll after Catalan lawmakers declared independence on October 27, triggering Spain’s worst political crisis since democracy was reinstated following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.