The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has considered two complaints from the PSC in which the socialists warn of a violation of the “necessary political neutrality of public powers” during the electoral period.
This is a complaint for the publication of advertising on the profiles of of the presentation of the proposal for unique financing for Catalonia promoted by the ERC Government, which took place at the Palau de la Generalitat after the meeting of the Executive Council on March 19. In both cases, these are actions carried out once the May 12 elections have already been called and, therefore, during the electoral period.
According to the resolution to which La Vanguardia has had access, the administrative body of electoral control reprimands the Executive of Pere Aragonès, urging it to “during the rest of the electoral period to refrain from carrying out actions that are contrary to the prohibition of carrying out an achievement campaign.” or the use of images or expressions that coincide or are similar to those used by political groups in their electoral campaign.”
For the JEC, in both reported cases the Government incurred a breach of article 50.2 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (Loreg), which expresses the prohibition of public powers to carry out “any organized or financed act, directly or indirectly. , which contains allusions to the achievements or achievements obtained”. For the administrative body, the violation of this precept is “obvious” in the case of advertising published on March 19 and 20, despite the fact that the contracting of these spaces was carried out one day before the electoral call was published. in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat.
The JEC thus rejects the Government’s allegations, which defended the opposite, and maintains that these advertisements were not providing the citizen with necessary or essential information for the correct functioning of public services, which would constitute an exemption to the rule.
Regarding the Government’s press conference on March 19, the PSC attributes to the spokesperson Patrícia Plaja and the Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas, “political and partisan messages of the virtues and benefits that adorn an ERC Government, on the one hand, and the alleged evils, the negative and the demerit of another political option represented by the Government of Spain.” In this case, although the Government claims that these were not electoral demonstrations, the JEC agrees with the socialists. He considers that they would be political opinions “perfectly legitimate in another context”, but that carried out taking advantage of the public organization of a press conference “exceed the limits of an institutional action that repeats the political neutrality of public powers during the electoral period.”
The PSC already announced last Tuesday that it was studying filing complaints with the Electoral Board for the continued use of public media by the Government to make announcements and electoral promotion in favor of the ERC candidate, President Pere Aragonès. To date, Illa’s party has presented these two complaints but they also warn that the Republican’s last appearance announcing his proposal for a referendum in Catalonia is, as in the cases described, a “partisan use of the institutions.”
On this occasion, the president appeared last Tuesday from the Centelles palace in Barcelona to give an account of the report that the Institute of Self-Government Studies (IEA), directed by former ERC councilor Joan Ridao, had produced in this regard.
In this case, it was the Catalan PP that filed a complaint with the Electoral Board that the administrative body still has on the table.
