The Central Electoral Board (JEC) insists that it cannot grant Carles Puigdemont the MEP credential since he did not abide by the Constitution after the European elections held in May 2019, something he did not do because he went to Brussels after the turbulent autumn of 2017. After meeting this Thursday, this body has thus responded to a request from the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola, on whether the former head of the Government and three other Catalan MEPs are part of the list of 59 positions that were proclaimed elected. The electoral body maintains that the four leaders should go to Madrid to abide by the Magna Carta and be fully-fledged parliamentarians.
The body thus maintains the doctrine that it already marked in July 2019, when it ratified that Puigdemont had been elected in the European electionsbut that by not going to abide by the Constitution before the Central Electoral Board in Madrid did not acquire “the status of Members of the European Parliamentnor therefore acquired any of the prerogatives that may correspond to them, all of this until they take an oath or promise to abide by the Spanish Constitution”.
In the new resolution, issued this Thursday, the JEC “considers that Mr Puigdemont has not acquired full status as a Member of the European Parliament” and that, therefore, “his seat must remain temporarily vacant until such compliance takes place, with the consequent suspension of his rights and prerogatives in the same terms”. And even more clearly, they specify that “this is the reason why Mr Puigdemont’s Member of the European Parliament credentials have not been issued“That is, they inform the European Parliament that Puigdemont is not one of the 59 elected parliamentarians.
another three cases
The Junts MEPs find themselves in the same situation as Puidgemont Toni Cominwhat went out elected in the May 2019 electionsY Clara Ponsatithat was proclaimed in January 2020 after the readjustment of seats that occurred with the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Both, being on the run from Justice, did not come to abide by the Constitution before the Central Electoral Board. Although he had no pending issues with the Justice, the ERC MEP Jordi Solé, who replaced Oriol Junqueras after this was disabled after the sentence of the ‘procés’, neither did he promise or swear the Magna Carta.
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Despite the fact that none of the four politicians has been ratified by the JEC, at the moment they go to their seats in a normal way and exercise all the functions of such a position, since the former president of the European Parliament David Sasolimaking use of its powers, decided to allow them to go to the Chamber as a result of a legal report derived from the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU that allowed the former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras provisionally restore parliamentary immunity.
However, the JEC explains in its resolution that in the cases of Puigdemont and Comin, who appealed the decision not to grant them the act of MEPs, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the electoral body in a ruling in the one that examines the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of December 19, 2019, in the Junqueras i Vies case and that this is not incompatible with what is in force in article 224.2 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) which establishes the obligation to abide by the Constitution.