The Spanish government stopped commenting days ago on the actions of Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, once they had ordered his removal from office via article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, as an expression of their scorn for him continuing to call himself a representative of the Catalan government. After explicitly calling him "ex-president" to journalists on Monday, however, Spanish deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, has this Tuesday in the Senate joked about Puigdemont and his "free time" in Brussels, where she says he dedicates himself to "constant improvisation".
Santamaria was responding to comments made by Puigdemont in an interview with Catalan public radio this morning, in which he said that Spain "would be shamed" if the trials of the members of the Catalan government and the Board of the Parliament were challenged by the European Court of Human Rights. Puigdemont was especially hard on the Spanish state saying that it had acted with "hate and aggression" in relation to the independence process and those who support it. "It wouldn't skimp on efforts to bring more violence to our streets", said the president, in the case of moving forwards with the Catalan Republic.
The deputy prime minister didn't go into details, repeating that the central executive would be "busy" with the business of government. Mariano Rajoy's deputy attacked, however, the criticisms of the impartiality of Spanish justice saying that the country "is a democracy". She claimed this contrasted with the Law of Transitional Jurisprudence approved by the Catalan Parliament in September to prepare for the eventuality that 'yes' won the referendum. "Here the judges are independent, not how that law of Mr Puigdemont wanted, which planned to hand-pick them for nominations", said Santamaría.