The cases of Cristina Casol and Aurora Madaula, who have filed complaints of harassment in the equality office of the Parliament of Catalonia against their own employment, led Junts to request a review of the protocol followed in these cases in the institution, considering that it does not have all the necessary guarantees and that it has some gaps. The president of the Chamber, Anna Erra, in a meeting of the Board two weeks ago made that consideration and the legal services of the Catalan Chamber have partly agreed with her.
Erra requested a review of the protocol that was approved in 2021 and that its application be suspended for the duration of that process, but he did not have the complicity of the rest of the members at that time. The institution’s lawyers, in a report to which La Vanguardia has had access, and which all the members of the governing body have received today, reject that possibility, but they do see drawbacks in the sanctioning regime, considering that it is unconstitutional, that “it presents problems of legal uncertainty” in its application, especially “in the procedural guarantees of those affected in the initial phase of the procedure” and in the right of defense, and that the appointment of independent experts “is not ideal” as it is “ad hoc”, this is by finger.
“From a legal point of view, the design of the procedure established by the protocol raises doubts about the nature of its phases and from the point of view of procedural guarantees,” states the aforementioned 23-page report, signed by the senior lawyer of the institution, Miquel Palomares, and lawyer Antoni Bayona, who also performed that function in the past.
Thus, the legal services understand that “the role of the equality office in the initial phase is not well defined, especially with regard to the scope and limits of its functions”, especially because an approach committee is later appointed in each case. “The relevance of the boarding commission in the application of the protocol requires extreme caution regarding the technical qualifications of the people who make it up, and especially, regarding their independence,” the document adds.
Regarding the sanctions, which may fall on the parliamentary group and have economic consequences, it is noted that “the establishment of this type of sanction, in addition to being unusual, is difficult to justify due to the fact of holding the group directly responsible and making it the recipient of measures.” (the effect of the sanction) derived from individual conduct that would be attributable, in principle, to one of its members”. The protocol also contemplates that a deputy can be removed from the parliamentary group, a fact that, however, according to the lawyers, would affect the rights of the parliamentarians.
In Junts they considered these days that in the report on the Casol case there was an excess when making assessments of the internal climate of the party and there are those who have censored these days that an external company acts as a “parallel court” and rules whether a complaint is true or not. No. “In these cases, the victims should be supported and people should be encouraged to go to court if there is something to report,” said a source consulted by Jordi Turull and Laura Borràs.
Right now, Madaula’s complaint is still pending resolution or it has not yet emerged what the evaluation of the external and independent parties evaluating the case is. In relation to the complaints of Casol, already expelled from the JxCat group, her accusations were dismissed considering that the facts could not be proven and the majority of the post-convergent group turned their backs on her and asked her to resign.
In Junts there is discomfort with both cases considering that their complaints have their origin in political discrepancies and voices from the party consulted conclude that the information about the Lleida deputy, now not attached, was released to the media once she already knew that she had been rejected his writing. Hence they complain about the lack of guarantees in the party. “Perhaps her [Casol’s] function was to be a hare [for Madaula] and she has ended up as a scapegoat,” other post-convergent sources say.
