Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has threatened to re-impose direct rule on Catalonia if separatist leader Carles Puigdemont tries to govern from Belgium, where he is living in self-imposed exile.
Separatist parties last week agreed to re-install Mr Puigdemont as Catalonia's president of government, following fresh elections in which they kept their majority in the Catalan Parliament.
But the ousted leader is currently in Belgium, where he has fled following charges of sedition, rebellion, and misuse of public funds for his role in the region's independence referendum last autumn. He faces arrest and likely imprisonment if he returns, and says he needs "guarantees" before he comes back to Catalonia.
Separatists suggested Mr Puigdemont could be sworn in via video-link or by proxy at a meeting of the Catalan Parliament this week, but the Spanish government in Madrid has now vetoed the proposal.
In a speech at his centre-right People’s Party headquarters on Monday Mr Rajoy said: “It's absurd that someone aspires to be president of the Catalan regional government as a fugitive in Brussels - it's a case of common sense.”
Spanish government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo added: "Parliamentary rules are very clear. They do not contemplate the possibility of a [parliamentary] presence that is not in person.
"This aspiration is a fallacy, it's totally unrealistic and it goes against the rule books and common sense."
Catalonia is governed by a highly devolved local government, the Generalitat de Catalunya, which gives the region sweeping powers akin to home rule.
The powers were revoked by Spain last year after a unilateral declaration of independence, however. Fresh elections called to restore the Generalitat however returned another pro-independence majority, in refiance of Mr Rajoy and the powers in Madrid.
The newly elected Catalan parliament will meet for the first time on 17 January to choose the committee that rules its day-to-day activities, with a vote on a new leader likely as early as Jan. 31.
