Spanish deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has spoken out firmly against the possibility of Carles Puigdemont being invested Catalan president "symbolically". Santamaría invoked the verdict by Spain's Constitutional Court, rejecting an investiture without Puigdemont present in person. The deputy prime minister warned the Catalan Parliament's speaker, Roger Torrent, that "he knows" what the court has said and that the Catalan chamber was there to "invest deputies who comply with the law and what the rules order".
Spanish government sources go further and say that they are alert to an investiture materialising "through a law or a meeting". That could provoke a new appeal to the Constitutional Court or a request for a judgement requiring the implementation of a prior verdict, as has been seen before. They also note that it's still formally an acting Parliament and that a legislative move to change the laws around the presidency would have no effect, in response to a path they believe JuntsxCat might want to pursue.
In terms of financing, the central executive say they're alert to any movement of public money, if a possible assembly of mayors should travel to Brussels to stage Puigdemont's investiture, as has been speculated following certain reports. The sources even jokes about what would have happened if Mariano Rajoy had called PP mayors for his investiture. "It could give them a problem", they say in relation to using government money, which could imply a crime of misuse of public funds. In any case, the sources say they are very attentive and working "in anticipation", analysing "all scenarios" that could occur.
The sources urge Torrent to make moves towards the investiture, reminding him that it cannot be postponed "indefinitely". The Spanish government's official position is to wait for the report from the Catalan Parliament's lawyers as to whether the period of two months to new elections has started counting down. The PP have been urging for days for Ciutadans's leader Inés Arrimadas to stand for investiture, even if she wouldn't have the votes, with the aim of starting the clock, as a way to end the stalemate.
Santamaría herself again attacked Puigdemont with the same arguments as when she presented the appeal to the Constitutional Court. She said that the Catalan government deserved a "a fully-functioning leader" who had "fully rights". In her opinion, the president has his freedom of movement reduced as a "fugitive from justice". "I believe that if, instead of everyone waiting on Puigdemont, as the independence supporters are, we were all waiting on Catalonia, things would be different".