The new political course begins this Thursday in Parliament with the Laura Borràs case folder on the table. After being suspended from her functions as president and deputy, the governing body of the Catalan Chamber will address the appeal to the decision adopted on July 28 by the ERC, the CUP and the PSC. It will do so at the request of Junts, which as soon as the official vacation period ended, presented a request for reconsideration.
The same three formations with representation in the Parliamentary Table that decided to suspend Borràs after being sent to trial for dividing public contracts, when he directed the Institution of Catalan Letters (ILC), will support their decision today. In fact, sources from the Catalan Chamber point out that the Board, directed on an interim basis by the first vice-president Alba Vergés (ERC), will not go into the substance of the matter and will air the case, alleging that Borràs’ suspension responds to “the direct application of the regulations” of the institution.
The regulations indicate that the opening of an oral trial against a deputy for crimes “related to corruption” is cause for suspension of parliamentary rights and duties, therefore, the Board will argue that it is not appropriate to reconsider something that “is not the result of a decision doubtful about a parliamentary procedure”.
That is where the most technical discussion will be based, where the second secretary and deputy of Junts, Aurora Madaula, -the only post-convergent representative left on the Board- will try to convince the rest of the members of the governing body and will denounce the violation of the presumption of innocence and rights civil and political in which, in his opinion, the suspension of Borràs incurs.
In this line, from the environment of the president they compare the situation of Borràs with the non-binding resolution of the UN, known yesterday, which considers that Spain violated the rights of pro-independence politicians by suspending them from their functions through article 155 before being condemned: “If it works for some, it also works for others”, they link, ignoring the different nature of both cases.
Borràs went to Parliament this Wednesday to “prepare” with Madaula the arguments for the reconsideration. The president is suspended from salary, she cannot use her official office – still occupied by her belongings – hers, nor the official car, nor participate in plenary sessions, but she refuses to resign. Accompanied by one of her collaborators, she assured that she does not plan to appear today in the Catalan Chamber.
His case leaves another thorny issue to deal with: the future of his advisers. The presidency of the Parliament had seven, six after one of them, Ramon Luque, left office to join the Department of the Vice-presidency of Jordi Puigneró. This temporary staff earns salaries ranging from 48,006 to 88,000 euros per year and their future is in the hands of Vergés.
The power to appoint or dismiss advisers belongs to the presidency, which is now held by the former minister on an interim basis, although in ERC they transfer the responsibility to their government partner because they are positions of trust at the proposal of the parties. From what happens, the possibility or not of a political agreement between both parties to shelve the Borràs case by designating a replacement can be inferred.
Until then, the inconvenience of maintaining six advisers without attributions but being paid will make a dent, something that has repercussions on the already degraded image of an institution that drags on controversies such as licenses due to age – the golden retirements that some Chamber workers enjoy – or the deputies’ allowances
