Imprisoned and exiled Catalan officials should campaign freely, says Catalan Socialists leader

Miquel Iceta, leader of the Catalan Socialist party (PSC) and candidate for the presidency of the Catalan government, said on Saturday that he hopes the dismissed ministers will be released from prison before the election campaigns begin. He also expressed his wishes that the Spanish justice system would not take any further measures of preventive imprisonment, referring to Carles Puigdemont and the rest of the government still in Brussels.

Connected to Spain’s main opposition party, the Spanish Socialists (PSOE), PSC was in favour of the application of Article 155.

"What I would like is for all the candidates to be able to campaign without any obstacles and I hope that those who are in prison will no longer be there,” he said. Although Iceta recgonized that “the case of Puigddemont is different” because he left so as to “avoid justice,” he said that he hoped Spain’s Supreme Court “will not take precautionary measures involving prison before the trial.”