Spain's Interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, has said this Monday he has no doubt that Catalan president Carles Puigdemont will be extradited to Spain to face justice, even if he doesn't know yet when as, he says, it's a "long" process.
Zoido made the comments in an interview with Andalusian channel Canal Sur TV on the day that Puigdemont and the four ministers with him in Belgium have appeared before a judge in Brussels who has to decide on the European Arrest Warrants issued by Spain. They also come hours before the formal start of the election campaign in Catalonia at midnight this evening.
Zoido asked for the judge's eventual decision to be respected and avoided commenting on whether it is better for the five, all standing for election, to be in prison or able to campaign.
"When waiting for the contents of a legal decision, you cannot say what is best politically because that would be distorting the system and the separation of powers", argued Zoido, for whom "what the justice system decides will be decisive to see how the campaign develops and that decision will have to be adapted to".