“I have not resigned. I am not resigning. And I will not resign”. It is the declaration of intent Laura Borras not to leave of his own free will from the presidency of the Parliament. She did not do it when the oral trial was opened and she was suspended from her duties, nor does she intend to do so now despite the sentence that she received. sentenced to four and a half years prison for prevarication and documentary falsification. The verdict it is not firm The Junts leader clings to this circumstance to resist leaving the position vacant and being replaced. And, although article 24 of the regulation protects her so as not to lose her seat, the reality is that the institution has almost nine months in limbo. An interim that most groups define as “untenable” and that the Government has claimed to resolve “immediate”.
It is before this diagnosis that even three tracks have been launched in parallel to try to get the Catalan Chamber to once again have a fully-functioning presidency and settle a provisionality that until now has been tricked with the republican Alba Verges acting as vice president with functions of president. The first, the one that the parties have repeatedly claimed, is politics, that is, that Junts forces Borràs’ voluntary goodbye and proposes a successor. The second, the one that Ciutadans, PP and Vox have opened using the Electoral Board. And the third, the one that the PSC has activated with a express reform of the regulation Parliament that ERC agrees to study, despite the fact that the leader of the Republicans, oriol junquerashas urged Junts to put an end to the situation and “not put the interests of a person before those of the country.”
The political path: the most unlikely
The debate on the substitution of Borràs, already thorny in itself, is poisoned by the electoral context. Junts has called for a closing of the ranks of his own to avoid internal brawls at the gates of the municipal ones and that translates into a public exit of the leaders who within the leadership ask that it be removed. Neither she intends to make any movement nor hers, at least for now, they are going to force her to leave since those who want that to happen take it for granted that the Electoral Board will end up intervening. There is already a person coined as a successor: the mayoress of Vic, anna erra.
That Junts does not move a finger run aground the political path, the one that the ERC, PSC, Comuns and CUP demand to unblock the situation and reach an agreement that allows the election of a new presidency. The pressure on the need to recover “the dignity” of the institution has gone ‘in crescendo’ since a sentence was made public in a case that all the parties, except Junts, dismiss as “corruption”. Even the Government insists that Borràs should not hide behind the institution and demands an agile solution to relieve it.
The path of the Electoral Board: the one that everyone takes for granted
They didn’t take long Citizens, PP and Vox after knowing the sentence to present an appeal to the Electoral Board to demand that it be executed and that Borràs lose his seat. It is the same way that the ‘expresident’ lost the record in his day Quim Torra – under the presidency in the House of Roger Torrent– and the former deputy of the CUP Pau Juvillawho was left out despite not having a final sentence and that Borràs was then president with full functions.
But ERC, the CUP and the Comuns -also the PSC despite not having a belligerent attitude- understand that it is a interference in sovereignty of the Parliament that an administrative body decides who loses or not the status of deputy without having a final judgment, as established in the institution’s regulations. That is why, if the Electoral Board intervenes, the Chamber will present allegations. He will have a period of 10 business days to do so, so the withdrawal of the seat to Borràs would not be immediate. Even so, in the case of a case that the parties link to corruption, they do not anticipate more resistance either and, if the minutes of the next member of the Junts list are issued, they count on the relay will take place without even calling a commission to prepare an opinion that the plenary vote on.
The regulatory route: the PSC activates the debate
Given the discomfort caused in a large part of the parliamentary arc by the fact that even Borràs does not leave voluntarily and that everything remains in the hands of the Electoral Board, the PSC has moved tab with a proposal to reform by fast track -in less than a month- the regulations of Parliament. It is about introducing a “surgical” change so that the majority vote absolute power of the plenary is sufficient to remove Borràs -or any member of the table- from office. The objective is that this bill be discussed in the next plenary sessionon April 19, and be definitively approved in the session at the beginning of May.
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For now, the music doesn’t sound bad for the rest of the bands. ERC agrees to study the proposal, despite the fact that it would prefer that the political path end up being imposed. “In us always they will find an ally to preserve the institutions, but the first step must be taken by Junts”, he assured rushes in an interview with ACN. The Comuns have welcomed the initiative of the socialists and insist that “there are no excuses” to prevent a “shared output” to bypass the lock. And from the PP they have already dropped that the proposal generates doubts, but that the will support if it serves to put an end to the interim and “uncertainty” in Parliament.
The board of spokespersons tuesday April 11after the Easter break, will be the cotton test of whether the initiative of the Socialists has enough quorum, always with the doubt of whether the Electoral Board will end up being faster than the parliamentary groups.