The pro-independence members of the Table of the Parlament, with Laura Borràs at the head, have taken another step this Thursday so that the delegated vote of former Minister Lluís Puig can be counted, despite the fact that the Constitutional Court issued a ruling annulling the delegation of vote of the now deputy of Junts since it is not part of the assumptions included in the regulations of the Chamber.
In an extraordinary meeting of the governing body of the institution, the five participating deputies from JxCat, ERC and the CUP have signed the agreement with which they try to guarantee the effectiveness of the vote of the former Minister of Culture, although it may later be challenged. With the pact they assume the consequences and responsibilities that the vote, which has been counted orally in plenary these days, later appears in the official publications and in the minutes.
The pact had already been announced this Wednesday, but there have been times today when it seemed to be in danger, since some pro-independence leaders are aware that it is possible that tonight’s act, which can have criminal consequences, could be in vain.
In addition, at noon the CUP has sent a letter to its militants in which it revealed that at first “Junts’ action proposal did not go beyond a merely symbolic political declaration” that ran into the limitations of the operation of the Chamber . “In this scenario, the CUP could not continue to endorse the story of a symbolic and fictitious confrontation with the State while the action consisted, in reality, in assuming the imposition of the TC”, denounced the anti-capitalists, who warned at the same time that they will not endorse “in no case that the facts do not agree with the statements and messages, as happened in the case of Pau Juvillà, in which the president of the Parliament, while publicly saying that she would defend her seat and go to the end, not only did not comply but that ended up holding the officials responsible for not having carried out the acts that she herself had publicly committed to carry out.”
However, Borràs’s entourage stated at the outset that she was willing to go to the end with this issue, after Republicans and anti-capitalists accused him of otherwise on Tuesday, and Borràs herself has denied what she explained. the CUP in statements to the Catalan News Agency.
The truth is that at Tuesday’s meeting, the Chamber’s legal services warned that counting Puig’s vote effectively could have legal consequences. The Penal Code stipulates in article 402 that “whoever illegitimately performs acts of an authority or public official claiming official status, will be punished with a prison sentence of one to three years.”
Even so, on Tuesday it was agreed at the meeting of the Table, which lasted morning and afternoon, that the delegated vote would be counted for all legal and political purposes, but it was only specified then that it would be done verbally in plenary and that it would not appear on the electronic mechanisms and screens so as not to implicate officials. It was on Wednesday when it was decided that it would go further and that the vote would also appear in the minutes and official publications, which gives it legal validity. And this point was not guaranteed at first.
Despite the fact that the agreement has been signed, there were those who questioned the effectiveness of the measure and assured that in the future Puig’s vote could not be guaranteed and that it made no sense to assume criminal consequences. This debate has been present these days, but finally it has been decided to embark on a path similar to that of autumn 2017. A senior official from the Government pointed out, however, that in this case we are facing “a B-series film”.
