Catalan leaders won’t be arrested, says Spain's Foreign Minister

MADRID: Spain’s foreign minister has promised no arrests will be made when the Catalan government is dismissed as early as this week. Speaking in a BBC television interview on Sunday, Alfonso Dastis said there were no plans to arrest anyone when Spain ousts Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his government.

The ouster is part of a barrage of planned measures including taking control of the regional police force and public television and radio channels that are scheduled for a Senate vote on Friday. “We are not going to arrest anyone,” said Foreign Minister Dastis.

“All the government is trying to do is reinstate the legal order, restore the constitution but also the Catalan rules and proceed from there.”

In the interview with BBC, Dastis declined to clarify whether Spain would send in the national police or troops to restore order to the region. He said he hoped Catalan citizens would ignore any orders from regional police, adding “everything will be fine, there will be law and order, peaceful life and normal coexistence which is what we’re after.”