The suspension of Laura Borràs as deputy and, consequently, as President of the Parliament, by the members of the Chamber’s Bureau constitutes a negative news for the prestige of Catalan institutions that she would have had to avoid. Supported only by part of her political formation, Borràs has preferred to entrench herself in a sort of lofty lonelinessinstead of taking a step to the side as even the leaders of Junts per Catalunya, the party he presides over, recommended after the opening of joral trial for corruption. Borràs will be judged for the public contracts that –according to an investigation by the Mossos revealed by EL PERIÓDICO– the politician allegedly hand-delivered when he directed the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes. Refusing to resign the former president was wrong. With this, not only has she not been able to avoid being removed from her functions, but she has also created another unnecessary conflict in the already stressed Catalan politics. At no time has she acted with the high-mindedness that a president of Parliament is supposed to. Backed by some 200 affiliates concentrated in the Ciutadella park, and by a support document signed by a few thousand of her followers, Borràs has preferred to die killing.
Her description of the five parliamentarians from the PSC, ERC and CUP who have voted against her as “deputies dressed as hypocritical judges” constitutes a gesture as unprecedented as it is irresponsible, bearing in mind that they have done nothing more than apply article 25.4 of the Chamber’s regulations by which any deputy accused of corruption must be suspended, when the oral trial of the case is opened. It is possible to disagree on whether the accusation of prevarication and false documents for which the prosecutor asks Borràs for six years in prison and 21 years of disqualification constitutes corruption or not, but neither the accusation of hypocrisy, nor the threatening words of « having your hands stained with blood» to those who have supported his suspension are welcome.
Borràs has the right to consider herself a “daughter of October 1” who does not fit with the logic of the parties, not even the independentistas. Something similar happened when Quim Torra was disqualified for placing a banner in the Generalitat that violated electoral legislation. However the populism that entails such an attitude has a limit: compliance with the law by public servants, and more when it comes to the second authority of Catalonia. With his Numantine attitude, Borràs will have inflamed part of the independence movement, clinging to the idea of permanent conflict with the State and its laws, including those that emanate from the Parliament itself. An attitude that, by the way, contrasts with the declaration that the Government and the Generalitat approved on Wednesday, at the meeting of the dialogue table, when they agreed that political and institutional activity must take place “according to democratic procedures.”
After the suspension, Borràs insinuated that he aspires to become the leader of those who bet on confrontation and unilateralism. You have the right to do so, outside the institutions, as long as the trial is not held. However, it is likely that her political position, as president of Junts, has been weakened. The latest survey of the CEO, published yesterday, clearly indicates that this is the party that loses the most deputies, after presenting itself in recent months as the champion of confrontation and the most unrepentant independence movement. The discretion with which their general secretary has acted, Jordi Turulland other party leaders, despite their formal support for Borràs, reveals a certain weariness of attitudes that prevent Junts from occupying a central space in the Catalan nationalist space.