Madrid warns it will 'take action' if jailed officials are reinstated

The Spanish government is not willing to let any of the deposed Catalan cabinet members return to their previous posts before the government was dismissed. Rajoy’s executive and Spain’s courts prevented Carles Puigdemont from being sworn in as Catalan president again after the December 2017 election. Now Madrid has also warned that if the new Catalan leader, Quim Torra, nominates any of the deposed officials as ministers, it will “take action.” This, according to its spokesman, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, speaking at a press conference after the Spanish government's weekly cabinet meeting.

For him, “it is common sense” to think that a minister cannot exercise their tasks if incarcerated. “It is in fact not possible,” he added. Méndez de Vigo insisted that his government wants to engage in dialogue, but on one condition: it has to be “within the law.” According to him, “there cannot be dialogue outside the law.”He asked the new Catalan president to reduce the political “tension” between both countries and form a “legal and viable government.” 

Madrid has yet to lift the direct rule over Catalonia. It will only be lifted once a new executive is in place, insists the Spanish government. On Tuesday, Torra pledged that he would offer to reinstate all ministers dismissed by the Spanish government, both those in jail and those abroad. He will visit the ones incarcerated on Monday in the Madrid prisons where they are held.