The parliamentary group of the PSC-Units has decided to take the initiative and present a reform of the law –modified in 2003– that since 1988 has protected the compensation and life pensions that the presidents of Parliament, and even their widowed spouses, can receive. The proposal derives from the will of the Socialists to “dignify” the institution, deteriorated by an interim situation since the suspension of Laura Borràs.
According to what La Vanguardia has learned, Salvador Illa’s party plans to register today a bill to repeal the rule that former president Jordi Pujol signed in his day so that the presidents of the Catalan Chamber, once left office, could “to meet their political needs with dignity and decorum that corresponds to the functions performed.”
This rule allows living ex-presidents to collect 80% of their salary, at the expense of the Generalitat de Catalunya budget, after leaving office and for four years, which currently exceeds 150,000 euros gross per year. In addition, if the president in question has “held office for at least two years”, reached 65, he is entitled to a monthly lifetime pension of 60% of his salary. Even after death, their living spouses are also entitled to a lifetime pension corresponding to 50% of the salary of the then president.
This provision was modified in 2003 in the statute of the former presidents of the Generalitat, which was partially applied to the presidents of the Chamber, and it was established that the allocation will be maintained for half the time they have been in office or at least for a legislature, that is, four years after his cessation. Pension rights were maintained on the same terms.
The PSC wants to repeal this law regardless of the judicial future of Laura Borràs, on whom the doubt weighs as to whether or not she would have access to a life pension when she retires due to a matter of deadlines. Yesterday the leader of Junts completed two years as president of the Parliament with the position suspended.
The Socialists are aware that their proposal will not end the interim presidency, an unprecedented circumstance not provided for in the regulations that has plunged the institution into a serious crisis, but “we want to repeal the privileges,” they allege. “It is not an ad hoc measure or against anyone”, but “it is necessary to take steps in this direction, and we feel the responsibility, as the first group of the Chamber, to take the initiative”, they justify.
The leader of Junts is not the only one who would be affected by the repeal of the rule. Five living presidents of the Parliament have had or are entitled to these benefits: Joan Rigol (held office between 1999 and 2003), Ernest Bench (between 2003 and 2010), Núria de Gispert (2010-2015), Carme Forcadell ( 2015-2017) and Roger Torrent (2018-2021). Three of them, Benach, Forcadell and Torrent, are active in the Left.
To solve this situation, the Socialists present a downward solution in their bill, a transitional provision that significantly reduces the allocations and limits them exclusively to six months.
In the case of the salary supplement after leaving the presidency, the Socialists propose to reduce it from 80% to 20% and for a period of six months, provided that this limit has not already been exceeded. In practice, all the presidents of Parliament have already been able to receive this benefit during the 24 months after taking office. All except Borràs. The Minister of Business met yesterday, March 12, two years since he ceased to lead the Catalan Chamber, but the benefits as expresident are incompatible with other public income, so he was forced to choose between the salary of a minister or that of a former president of the camera.
In the case of the retirement pension, the Socialists also propose lowering the allocation to 10% of the salary and the period during which it will be received to six months, from the entry into force of the proposal. This provision would affect all retired former presidents, who would see the pension they currently receive significantly reduced. Above all, in the case of Torrent, the only one who has not reached retirement age.
Finally, the living spouses of a former president of Parliament would also see their life pension reduced to 10% and also limited to six months from now on.
To bring this reform to fruition, the Socialists claim to have maintained some “informal” parliamentary contacts, but they hope to have a sufficient majority in favor given the context in which the Catalan Chamber finds itself, with other cases of golden retirements that concern their workers.
“When the current law was approved, there were people who carried out important political work in Catalonia, trajectories that prevented them from contributing and, therefore, facing the final stage of their lives with the necessary decorum, but this is no longer the case,” they allege in the psc. The Socialists believe that “now it is enough with the forecasts that any deputy has” and that “there should not be a regime of exceptionality.”
The socialist proposal emphasizes that “social perception” of these provisions for public office “has changed” and now they are perceived as “unjustifiable privileges” because they are granted for many years to people who have been in office for a relatively short time.
