Inés Arrimadas, whose election win in Catalonia helped her Ciudadanos party overtake Spain's ruling conservatives in polls, dismisses talk that Catalan separatists have been jailed or exiled for their ideas.

The woman holding the frontline for Spain's loyalist establishment in the worst crisis in four decades of democracy argues that exiled regional President Carles Puigdemont and his jailed deputy Oriol Junqueras are not victims. Rather, they are "identitarian nationalists" who have trampled on the rights of ordinary Catalans to impose their minority view.

"There are no political prisoners: These men spent public money on something illegal and violated the rights of Catalans, my rights as a Catalan," the center-right politician told POLITICO on a visit to Brussels.

It's an opinion that resonates across the mainstream political spectrum: Former Prime Minister Felipe González told LaSexta TV that Junqueras "isn't a political prisoner," though he should be freed pending trial. Puigdemont, the veteran Socialist said, "isn't a political exile" but a captain who abandoned his ship.

In Catalonia, however, her tough talk makes Arrimadas a lightning rod for anti-Spanish sentiment. She has been threatened, insulted, told to "go back to Jerez" (the Andalusian town of her birth) and has to travel with a police escort. Some pro-separatist town councils, like Llavaneres northeast of Barcelona, went so far as to declare her persona non grata.

She led Ciudadanos — which was founded in Catalonia by Albert Rivera in 2006 to counter anti-Spanish invective and has grown to be the most popular party in Spain — to a surprise victory in December's regional election, winning 1.1 million votes.

"Thanks to Inés Arrimadas, the 'fascist pig' [one of the insults hurled at her], nobody in Catalonia can say a pro-independence party won most votes or most seats," wrote conservative columnist Alfonso Ussía on the website Periodista Digital.

Four months later, the Generalitat (the Catalan autonomous government) still has no president as the regional assembly, dominated by the separatists who together outnumber Ciudadanos, repeatedly tries and fails to vote in leaders who are in exile or prison.

https://twitter.com/KRLS/status/977649313487695874

After Spanish Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena ordered independence leaders to be put on trial for rebellion, which carries a potential jail term of 25-30 years, Puigdemont tweeted from Finland his criticism of Arrimadas for "asking for dialogue while you applaud jailing deputies .... You ask for respect but you're incapable of looking the political prisoners in the eye."

The secessionist leaders' legal status is key to resolving the standoff since their parties have so far refused to appoint compromise candidates who aren't in trouble with the law. The Catalan crisis is an impossible challenge and major distraction for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, as support for his Popular Party (PP) crumbles under corruption scandals.

But it has proved a blessing in disguise for Barcelona-born Rivera and his national spokeswoman Arrimadas, a telegenic pair of thirty-somethings whose squeaky-clean image has helped them mop up centrist votes with promises to clean up Spanish politics.

'Ready to govern'

The latest Metroscopia poll for El País put Ciudadanos first with 28.7 percent of voter intentions, extending its lead over the PP, on 20.4 percent. The Socialists had 19.1 percent and the far-left Podemos 18.3 percent.

With the two newcomers — Ciudadanos and Podemos — totaling nearly half of support, Spain looks set for a complete overall of its PP-PSOE dominated political system at its next general election, due in 2020 at the latest. It could get a preview in May next year, when municipal and regional elections in parts of Spain (though not in Catalonia) coincide with the election for the European Parliament.

With fatigued voters still recovering from the repeat general election of 2015-2016 and the disruption caused by last October's referendum on Catalan independence — declared illegal by Madrid and Spanish courts — and subsequent Catalan regional vote in December, Rivera and Arrimadas sensibly focus on next year's triple whammy rather than any prospect of an early national or regional vote.

"I am convinced Ciudadanos will govern Spain after the next general elections," Arrimadas said. "We are ready to govern and our project for Spain will be carried out at local, regional and European level, which is why the historic date that our country has next year is so important."

In the meantime, she said, "the role of Ciudadanos is to guarantee stability and sensible behavior to avoid us having repeat elections all the time." She described the party as a motor of reform, citing initiatives to help business and cleanse Spanish politics of corruption: "We have no baggage — we don't have to return any favors or hush anything up. We are a new party and our hands are free to carry out reforms."

Liberals to the rescue

Grabbing a sandwich and bottled water between meetings at the European Parliament with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), Arrimadas was so intent on portraying Ciudadanos as the most Europhile party in Spain that she used the word europeista (pro-European) at least 10 times during the interview.

Unlike Germany, France, Italy, the U.K. and many others, Spain has no big Euroskeptic party; the fondness is mutual, judging by support for Rajoy from Brussels and across the EU during the Catalan debate.

After violence marred the referendum, the European Commission defended the "proportionate use of force" by Spanish police. Puigdemont, living in Brussels until his arrest in Germany this month, has lobbied the EU to no avail, though a group of MEPs has set up a petition calling for the release of the jailed Catalan leaders.

The Catalan separatists argue that their independent state would be a model EU member (Spanish veto permitting). But Arrimadas lumped them in a similar category to other nationalist movements that are seen as a threat to the future of the EU. The liberals, she said, are stronger defenders of the EU than the conservatives or socialists — citing Emmanuel Macron's defeat of the National Front last year.

"The best bulwark against populism and nationalism is the europeismo that we defend. I think we have seen that with Macron, but also with our party in Spain." She was cagey, however, on whether Ciudadanos might break with ALDE to form part of an EU-wide liberal movement led by Macron's La République En Marche — speculation fuelled by Rivera's contacts with the French president.

"We have contact with all the European liberal parties, including Macron. Obviously we are part of ALDE and we will see what happens," she said. "Many people said to us 'it's impossible to win elections or grow in the polls if you call yourselves 'liberal' in Spain.' We have shown that is not true. We are part of the liberal family and we are confident our representation will grow a lot in the coming European elections."

It's not Ulster

Arrimadas said her party, as well as Spanish judges handling the independence leaders' cases, have suffered intimidation which she blamed on the separatists. It demonstrated, she said, "the difference between the nationalism they represent and the europeismo that our movement represents." In the Catalan parliament, she has blamed separatists for causing 3,000 companies to leave Catalonia.

Marta Pascal, the current head of Puigdemont's Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT), told POLITICO she respected Arrimadas as an adversary and welcomed the "feminization" of Catalan politics that they both represent. She condemned any intimidation or violence, but added: "Any attempt by Ciudadanos or others to make this out to be Ulster or Euskadi (the Basque Country) doesn't hold up."

The PDeCat leader, speaking by phone from Barcelona, described Arrimadas as a "Spanish nationalist" who did indeed win the elections but now has "zero capacity to form government" because her party doesn't have enough allies in the region.

As for the legal status of the independence movement's leaders, Pascal said: "The people who are now in jail or on trial are there because they held a referendum on October 1 which was an expression of democracy. So we have people in prison and exile for defending their democratic ideas."

In Arrimadas' view, even though she dislikes the Catalan electoral law that she says keeps her out of power by allocating a disproportionate numbers of seats in the assembly to pro-independence constituencies, the separatists should go ahead and form a government — but not led by Puigdemont or Junqueras, who should not benefit from what she called "privilege or impunity."

It is time to be "sensible and realistic," rather than hurtling toward yet another regional vote that would prolong the instability, she said. But Arrimadas proclaimed herself ready to fight another campaign if necessary, throwing up her arms to say: "I won and I can do it again."