"There are lines that cannot be crossed", said Mr. García Margallo during a breakfast meeting with journalists: "The government will use all of the means at its disposal to prevent a secessionist referendum. The law, and only the law".

Asked if those measures included suspending regional government, the Foreign Minister replied: "It includes everything that needs to be included to prevent it".

"Within the framework of the Constitution and the rule of law, everything is possible; but outside of the framework of the Constitution and the rule of law, nothing is possible."