# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
s = u"characters (in this case, they are áéíóöőúüű)."
res = re.sub(ur'\W+', u' ', s, flags=re.UNICODE).encode("utf8")
print(res)
IyAtKi0gY29kaW5nOiB1dGYtOCAtKi0KaW1wb3J0IHJlCnMgPSB1ImNoYXJhY3RlcnMgKGluIHRoaXMgY2FzZSwgdGhleSBhcmUgw6HDqcOtw7PDtsWRw7rDvMWxKS4iCnJlcyA9IHJlLnN1Yih1cidcVysnLCB1JyAnLCBzLCBmbGFncz1yZS5VTklDT0RFKS5lbmNvZGUoInV0ZjgiKQpwcmludChyZXMpCg==