Spanish govt acts to block Puigdemont's bid for Catalan presidency candidate

MADRID, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish government plans to appeal the nomination of ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont as a candidate for president of Catalonia to the country's Constitutional Court, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Thursday.

In a press conference, she said the speaker of the Catalan regional parliament, Roger Torrent, from the pro-independence party ERC, could not propose Puigdemont for the investiture vote, it should be another person.

"He (Puigdemont) has an arrest warrant in Spain, which is incompatible with being at the parliament", Saenz de Santamaria said, adding that, "he would be arrested as soon as he enters Spanish territory."

The Spanish government has asked the Council of State for reports on the issue, as well as, on other matters such as the possibility of a long-distance investiture vote without Carles Puigdemont in the parliament.

Carles Puigdemont is currently in Brussels along with other former members of the Catalan government after the independence of Catalonia was declared and the Spanish government intervened the autonomy and called regional elections under the application of the article 155.

Spainish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy then dismissed the Catalan government and its head, and called a snap parliamentary election that took place on Dec. 21, with the region's pro-independence bloc winning an absolute majority in the parliament.

But the Spanish authorities said they would maintain Article 155 should Puigdemont be chosen to return to his former post.

Puigdemont is facing arrest over charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds given his role in Catalonia's independence referendum, which was declared illegal by Madrid.

The Catalan parliament is expected to hold a vote to approve the region's new leader on Jan. 31. Enditem