Former Catalan leader says he can rule from abroad, Madrid says no way

The sacked former leader of Catalonia said on Friday he could be re-elected as the region's president and rule remotely from his self-imposed exile in Brussels, but the Spanish government said it would not let that happen.
Supporters of Carles Puigdemont, who faces arrest for charges including sedition and rebellion if he returns to Spain, have suggested he could rule via video link -- earning him the sobriquet "the hologram president" from detractors.
"I am a member of parliament who is perfectly eligible as president," Puigdemont told Catalunya Radio. "These days many big projects are handled with the use of new technologies."
Referring to the charges against him, he added: "You can't rule from prison."
But the Spanish government said he could not rule from Brussels either.
"He won't be president (of Catalonia)," Inigo Mendez de Vigo, who is government spokesman and Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, told Reuters.
The government would immediately appeal to the courts if parliament leaders allowed the election of "a fugitive in Brussels", Mendez de Vigo said.
Puigdemont's administration was dismissed by the central government in Madrid after he spearheaded a drive for...

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