Blunt - but nevertheless surprising - responses from José Manuel García-Margallo. The former Spanish foreign minister was asked for his views on what is likely to lie ahead for Catalan politician Carles Puigdemont, who obtained provisional accreditation as an MEP this week, although Spanish prosecutors have said they want to ask the European Parliament to suspend the immunity that it entails. "He can't be arrested whether he comes to Barcelona or Perpinyà," said Margallo in an interview with Spanish TV network La Sexta.
"My friends in Brussels say to me: are you aware that you are going to put communists in the government with pro-independence people supporting them when you shouldn't even be giving them air to breathe? It's hard to understand," explained the former Popular Party minister when asked about the proposed new Spanish government.
The former chief of diplomacy was very critical of the PSOE's steps to form a coalition government in Spain, especially on the negotiation with the pro-independence ERC. "It's not magic realism, it's magic idealism."
For Margallo, the situation in Catalonia could have been resolved during the unofficial independence consultation held on November 9th, 2014. He said that "there were two options, either to judicialize the conflict [as occurred], or to move to a political solution - and I'm not revealing any secrets here - if we had tried to confiscate and destroy ballot boxes" used in the consultation. "If the Catalan government had refused, we would have had to apply article 155 for 24-hours, putting the [Catalan] Mossos police at the orders of central government. At the same time, a negotiation would have been started on aspects able to be discussed within the Constitution."
Puigdemont: "Junqueras can't be held either"
Carles Puigdemont reacted to Margallo's words. "Junqueras can't be held in prison either," he said in a tweet. "The consequences of the abuses and violations of the rule of law confirm Spain's black legend."
He added: "They have to decide if they'll refute [the black legend] by their actions, or confirm it by continuing to hold an MEP as a hostage."