The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has reproached Laura Borrà s for using the “interim” in the presidency of the Parliament as “one more piece of her personal defense strategy” and has warned her that the independence cause “does not deserve to remain tainted by corruption”.
In an interview with EFE, Aragonès wanted to be “very clear” regarding the Borrà s case, by assuring that the sentence that affects the president of JxCat “is not a case of political repression” against the independence movement, but “a sentence with some facts proven and related to corrupt practices”.
“She has every right to file appeals and to continue defending her innocence,” the president pointed out, “but it is not a case comparable to cases related to the referendum on October 1 or political repression.”
After being sentenced last week by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia to four and a half years in prison for awarding contracts by hand at the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, Borrà s said that she had no intention of leaving and demanded her reinstatement as head of the camera, alleging “political persecution”.
But the president of the Generalitat has censured Borrà s’s position: “The interim Parliament cannot be used as one more piece of the personal defense strategy. Legitimate, but ultimately personal. Parliament must have a presidency with full functions and not a vacant presidency,” he warned.
For this, Aragonès considers that it is necessary to “proceed with the election of a new Parliament presidency”, under two premises: that it “reflects” the pro-independence majority in the chamber and that JxCat takes the “first step”, proposing a replacement proposal to the rest of the groups, so that they study it and decide.
What if JxCat didn’t take that step forward and castled in keeping Borrà s? “We will not advance events,” the Catalan president and ERC national coordinator replied. “There is still a long way to go and I am fully confident that everyone will make the best possible decision to preserve the country’s institutions.”
The Republican leader has suggested that JxCat “should think, and think a lot” about “why in a case linked to corruption they now try to look the other way, putting the cause of independence at stake.” “The cause of the independence movement does not deserve to be contaminated by cases of corruption. We are obliged to be demanding and extremely exemplary. There are some proven facts that are clear and have nothing to do with political repression. This is the reflection that JxCat should carry out” , has advised.
On the other hand, he did not want to take a position on whether Borrà s should also leave the leadership of JxCat, after this week the ERC spokesperson, Marta Vilalta, reproached that formation for not having “cleaned up” the corruption within it and that, despite to “change the initials, don’t change the forms” regarding Convergència. Aragonès has said “to be nobody” to give an opinion on who should lead another party, nor to interfere in its “internal dynamics”, but to demand that the institutions be “at full capacity” and recover their “normality”.
Finally, he referred critically to the proposal to reform the Parliament’s regulations presented by PSC-Units, which would allow the plenary session, by absolute majority, to remove members of the Bureau from office. “We found out about this proposal through the media. I think that in an aspect as relevant to our institutions as the operating rules, as in the case of the regulation, it would have been good if the PSC had notified us beforehand and shared the content. But they have made a unilateral proposal”, has recriminated.
The PSC, for its part, also urges Borrà s to remove himself from office. The spokesperson for the Socialists in Parliament, AlÃcia Romero, has assured that Laura Borrà s, if she is “so patriotic and loves her country so much”, should “step aside” and leave the presidency of the Catalan chamber, so that the second most important institution in Catalonia can “recover normalcy”.
In statements to EFE, Romero has accused the suspended president of the Parliament and president of JxCat of “patrimonializing” the Catalan chamber and “putting her person before the institutions”, something that in her opinion “is very dishonest and very unpatriotic.”
His resignation, according to Romero, would be “the most dignified thing” that he can do now, once convicted of the crimes of prevarication and document falsification, to avoid “other solutions that would not be as quick as this one.” Solutions such as the one proposed by the Socialists in their proposal to reform the Parliament’s regulations, which, if approved, would allow Borrà s to be removed by an absolute majority in plenary.
This route would be a way to separate Borrà s and “recover normality, without waiting for a final sentence or what the Central Electoral Board says”, to which Ciudadanos, Vox and the PP have turned to have their act of deputy withdrawn .
Romero hopes that the PSC proposal will have the support of most groups, including ERC: “We would like ERC to support having a new presidency to recover normality as soon as possible.”
What the Catalan socialists do not contemplate in any way is to “revoke” the suspension of Borrà s as president of the Parliament and restore her “fully” in the position, as the second secretary of the Bureau and deputy of JxCat, Aurora Madaula, claimed yesterday.
