Ousted Catalan leader says 'ready' to stand in snap regional election

MADRID (Reuters) - Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who left Spain for Belgium after his regional government was sacked, said on Friday he was “ready” to stand in a snap regional election called in Catalonia for Dec. 21.

“I am ready to be a candidate... it’s possible to run a campaign from anywhere,” Puigdemont told Belgian state television RTBF.

“We consider ourselves a legitimate government. There must be a continuity to tell the world what’s going on in Spain... It’s not with a government in jail that the elections will be neutral, independent, normal,” he also said.