As was foreseeable from the background of Pau Juvillà or the former president Quim Torra, Ciudadanos has reacted immediately to the sentence of Laura Borràs and has announced that it will appeal to the Central Electoral Board (JEC) to remove the president of Junts for Catalonia the act of deputy and declare his seat vacant. But he has also criticized the inclusion in the sentence of a request for partial pardon so that the pro-independence leader does not go to prison.
In a press conference at the Parliament after Borràs’s response to the sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) at the gates of the building, the president of the Ciudadanos group, Carlos Carrizosa, given the thirteen-year sentence of disqualification and previous jurisprudence, has also urged the Board to withdraw the seat of Borràs, who has been suspended from rights and duties since July of last year in application of the regulations of the Chamber.
All in all, Carrizosa has not avoided showing his “surprise”, despite the “respect” due to any judicial resolution, in the face of the request for pardon that includes the sentence, which Ciudadanos considers a “little help” so that the Government can intercede in favor of you delete “I had no reason to do it,” said the parliamentary leader of Ciudadanos, who considers that the president of Junts “does not deserve it” because “she does not accept” the authority of the TSJC and considers that Spain is a “repressive State”.
In any case, Carrizosa has assured, “the pardon should have been requested by her”, for which reason she has deemed it “incomprehensible” that the TSJC “facilitates” things for the executive branch, which has already pardoned the prisoners imprisoned for 1-O without their requesting it directly. “I ask the Government not to pardon her,” exclaimed the Citizens deputy, who has argued that Borràs “does not regret it.”
In this sense, Carrizosa has charged against “political rinses” and political and judicial “marketing” when it comes to crimes of prevarication and documentary falsification whose penalties have not been the subject of public debate. “If the laws have to be modified, it must be done for everyone, not for her by way of pardon,” said the leader of Ciudadanos in Catalonia.
In the case of the former deputy of the CUP Pau Juvillà, Ciudadanos already urged the JEC to withdraw the act and to appoint the next candidate on the list, something that the highest electoral authority carried out immediately under Article 6.2b of the law organic of the General Electoral Regime (Loreg), which is the one that governs Catalonia as it does not have its own electoral law.
Based on that article, related to “crimes of rebellion, terrorism, against the public administration or against State institutions”, the Supreme Court declared the “supervening ineligibility” of a public office when it is sentenced in the first instance to a sentence of disqualification and even if it is awaiting a final judgment after the appeal before a higher instance. Therefore, in fact, it is about applying the disqualification retroactively and leaving the appointment without effect.
The PP has also requested the resignation of Borràs, but for the moment it is not going to urge the JEC to act. His deputy spokesperson in Parliament, Lorena Roldán, has said that although the popular “do not expect anything” from the president of Junts, they will give themselves “a reasonable period of time” to appeal and has announced that a future government of Alberto Núñez Feijóo would not pardon independence politics. However, the current head of the opposition will not have that “opportunity” if he arrives at Moncloa, because, according to Roldán, Pedro Sánchez will have done it before.
For its part, Vox has also demanded the immediate resignation of Borràs and the calling of an extraordinary plenary session to elect a new Parliament presidency, in whose Bureau the far-right claims to have representation. Although its spokesman, Joan Garriga, has not wanted to advance a possible appeal before the JEC, the ultra formation has confirmed that it will also do so. “We will take all pertinent measures to eradicate the widespread corruption of separatism,” Garriga announced.
The request for Borràs’s resignation has been widespread. PSC and En Comú Podem have also demanded it with the aim of recovering “the prestige” and “normality” of the Catalan Chamber, as pointed out by the socialist spokesperson Alícia Romero. The deputy has commented that the current interim situation in the presidency of the Parliament is an “anomaly that must be resolved as soon as possible”, but her group does not plan to present any initiative before the JEC or before the Catalan Chamber to demand that she return the seat because they understand that she should be the one to take “a step to the side”.
For “normality” to be restored in Parliament, the Socialists urge ERC and Junts to agree to appoint a replacement. In fact, the PSC has reaffirmed its “predisposition” to “help” this new candidate for the presidency have sufficient support, but if this does not happen, they do not rule out “nothing”, they say, referring to the possibility of presenting a socialist candidate to preside over the Catalan Chamber, although “it is not our priority”, Romero insisted.
