Alex Cubero
Barcelona (EFE).- The future of Laura Borràs as president of the Parliament in the face of a possible conviction was, for almost a year, the elephant in the room of Catalan politics, a thorny issue that generated political tensions in the independence movement and that no one wanted to fully address it until there was a court decision.
A box that has been reached this Thursday, when the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has sentenced Borràs to 4 and a half years in prison, in addition to 13 years of disqualification, for awarding contracts by hand at the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes , although he has proposed his partial pardon so that he can avoid prison.
In the absence of a final sentence, at EFE we analyze the political scenarios that are opening up now after the disqualification of Laura Borràs:
In what parliamentary situation is Borràs?
The presidency of the Catalan Parliament, the second authority in Catalonia, has been in an interim situation since July 28, 2022, when the Board of the chamber (with the votes of PSC, ERC and CUP, against one against JxCat) approved to suspend Borràs as a deputy and as president, after the opening of the oral trial.
This suspension was carried out in application of article 25.4 of the regulation (introduced in the reform approved by Junts pel Sí and the CUP in 2017), which establishes the immediate suspension of a deputy if an oral trial is opened for “crimes related to corruption”. .
Alba Vergés (ERC), first vice president of the chamber, has served as acting president since then, since Borràs has refused to leave office, even temporarily, by framing his case in a “political persecution” of the State.
What does the regulation of Parliament now provide?
With today’s sentence, Borràs maintains exactly her same parliamentary situation -deputy and president of the chamber, although suspended-, since the regulation of the Catalan chamber establishes that the loss of the seat would occur when there is a “firm” sentence of disqualification.
But if any group went to the Central Electoral Board (JEC), something that CS, PPC and Vox have already begun to do, it could analyze whether the sentence of disqualification from the TSJC is a cause of ineligibility that occurred without having to wait for a final sentence. .
In this case, based on article 6.2.b of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), the JEC could consider Borràs’s seat retired and would send the credentials of the new deputy from the JxCat list, in addition to requesting the Board of Parliament that applies it.
Are there similar precedents?
The Parliament found itself in the same situation in two previous cases, those of the former Catalan president Quim Torra (JxCat) and the deputy Pau Juvillà (CUP): although the judgments of the TSJC were not final, the JEC -which did not act ex officio- urged to withdraw their seat.
In January 2020, the Parliamentary Committee, during the presidency of Roger Torrent (ERC), endorsed withdrawing Torra’s deputy status, in application of an order from the JEC, for having ignored the ultimatum to withdraw from the balcony of the Generalitat , in electoral period, a banner supporting “political prisoners and exiles”.
A Torrent decision to obey the JEC that angered JxCat, who never forgave him; However, two years later, in February 2022, the then President of the Parliament, Laura Borràs, acted in the same way when she decided to withdraw the seat from Juvillà, who had also been disqualified for maintaining yellow ties in the Lleida City Council during the period electoral.
How will the parties act with respect to Borràs?
All the parties except JxCat agree that Borràs must resign immediately, although the differences arise in relation to who should succeed her at the head of the institution.
ERC asks to wait for a final ruling, but in the event that the JEC orders Borràs to withdraw the record, they are in favor of the presidency falling to a deputy “of the pro-independence majority” (they are not opposed to it being from JxCat, although the coalition government broke up months ago), if this is to prevent it from ending up in the hands of the PSC.
The CUP has also pointed out that it will prioritize that the new presidency “does not fall on any party of 155” (alluding to PSC, CS, PP or Vox); On the other hand, the commons are betting on a president of “a progressive force”, which would open the possibility of a candidate from leftist parties, whether he is pro-independence or not.
In the PSC, for now, prudence rules: they consider that it is up to the parties that allowed the investiture of Borràs -Junts, ERC and CUP- to propose a replacement, although if they do not agree, the Socialists would not rule out running.
And although JxCat publicly denies that his replacement is being considered, several scenarios are being considered internally: Borràs’ entourage proposes that the presidency be left “vacant” as a protest, a possibility defended by Quim Torra, while the pragmatic sector opts for ” occupy all the spaces” and replace it with another name, which would come out of the parliamentary group, and that of the mayoress of Vic (Barcelona), Anna Erra, has been playing there for months.
Will Borràs continue to lead JxCat?
The JxCat statutes contemplate the suspension of militancy or even expulsion in the event of a final sentence for corruption, but in last year’s congress an exception was introduced for cases of “lawfare” (political persecution that Borràs wields precisely in this case) , in which the guarantee commission decides.
At the gates of municipal elections, at JxCat for the moment they trust that the appeals before the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court will serve to reverse this sentence; but Borràs’s leadership is not solid internally and a conflict could open up between families of the party, especially by the pragmatic sector.