Madrid challenges Puigdemont’s candidacy despite consultive body rejection

The Spanish government has made a motion in the Constitutional Court to appeal Carles Puigdemont’s candidacy for president in the upcoming parliamentary debate. The Spanish vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, announced the motion on Friday and said that the obligation of Rajoy’s cabinet is to “prevent a fugitive from being sworn in as president” of Catalonia. For her, the fact that Puigdemont has an arrest warrant against him on Spanish soil “impedes him from being president.” The Spanish executive went ahead with its appeal despite the Advisory Council of State body rejecting this move on Thursday evening. 

“Our obligation is defending legality and democracy,” said Sáenz de Santamaría, who added that despite the advisory body’s report, “the [Spanish] government has enough arguments” to challenge the candidacy. “We understand that a person with an arrest warrant against them cannot be a candidate for president without fulfilling their obligations beforehand,” she told the press after Rajoy’s cabinet weekly meeting.