Catalan Separatists Need to Stop the Pointless Games

The end of the road for former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont came literally by the side of a highway -- at a rest stop on the A7 in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, not far from the Danish border. Wanted in Spain for his role in Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence last October, Puigdemont has traveled to other European Union countries. But Germany, because of its special role in the EU, couldn't afford to let him go. On Sunday, he was taken into custody, and it's likely that Spain will eventually get its hands on him.

In Spain, Puigdemont originally faced charges of rebellion and sedition. The Spanish authorities issued a European arrest warrant for him but canceled it in December. Belgium, where the Catalan separatist leader had fled, didn't have such crimes on its books, and there was a risk that Spain would lose face if Belgium refused to hand him over. The threat that the warrant would be reissued hung over Puigdemont as he traveled to Denmark in January, but nothing happened; he has since made a trip to Geneva, where the authorities said at the time that there was no legal basis for his arrest, and finally to Finland, on the invitation of some pro-Catalonia legislators there. It was on the way back from the Finnish trip that German police detained him. Spain had issued a new warrant after all, adding misuse of government funds to the charges. Danish police failed to act on it, taking advantage of a delay afforded them by the Spanish government's failure to send the order in English. German cops, however, held true to their reputation as sticklers to the rules.