Spain refuses to respect Catalonia's election

Last year, the Spanish government in Madrid dissolved Catalanoia's regional government and forced regional elections in the hope of overthrowing a seperatist majority in the regional Parliament. They lost. Catalans marched to the ballot boxes in record numbers, and re-elected the people Spain wanted to get rid of. They now seem set to re-elect the Carles Puigdemont - the man Madrid overthrew - as President. So naturally, Spain is having another tantrum:

Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned Madrid will continue to run Catalonia’s government if separatist leader Carles Puigdemont tries to govern from Belgium, where he is living in self-imposed exile.

Separatist parties last week agreed to reinstall Mr Puigdemont as Catalonia’s president of government, following fresh elections in which they kept their majority in the Catalan Parliament.

[...]

In a speech at his centre-right People’s Party headquarters on Monday, Mr Rajoy said: “It’s absurd that someone aspires to be president of the Catalan regional government as a fugitive in Brussels – it’s a case of common sense.”

Spanish government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo added: “Parliamentary rules are very clear. They do not contemplate the possibility of a [parliamentary] presence that is not in person.

Maybe Spain's parliamentary rules do. But Catalonia's parliamentary rules are a matter for Catalans. And I'd look to Catalonia for their interpretation, not Madrid. As for Madrid's threat, the will of the Catalan people is clear: they want the seperatists as government and Puigdemont as President. Spain needs to respect that. But that's the whole problem, isn't it?