The Table of the Parlament will decide on Thursday at noon on the situation of Laura Borràs if she does not take a step before. Esquerra Republicana, PSC and the CUP have demanded this Tuesday again the president of the Catalan Chamber, after the judicial order by which an oral trial is opened, has been made public, that she separate from her alone. But the also president of Junts has refused at all times to resign from her, and if she does not make a move, the others will.
The three formations have warned that if they do not deviate, 25.4 will be applied next Thursday, which provides for the automatic suspension of the duties and rights of deputies who sit on the bench for crimes related to corruption, as would be , in this case, the crime of prevarication.
Thus, the governing body of the Parliament has the power to apply this mechanism provided for in the regulation for five years. This is a provisional suspension, which if it comes into force does not strip Borràs of her deputy act. On the other hand, she does leave him without the functions of president, without salary and without the ability to participate in the meetings of the Parliament's bodies.
The Table was meeting this Tuesday at the moment in which it has transpired that the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) will put the president on the defendant's bench to judge her for prevarication and false documentation, for the alleged splitting of contracts to favor to a friend when he directed the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC). However, although it has been discussed, the matter has not yet been addressed formally and will be held on Thursday at 12:00 in a specific appointment for this purpose.
With these wickers, if Borràs does not step aside, it is most likely that it will be suspended in the Table on Thursday without the plenary having to intervene, since the three groups understand that there are no doubts about what the regulation stipulates. Another option contemplated in that article is that, if there are doubts, the Commission of the Statute of Deputies is asked to prepare a report. But neither the republicans, nor the anti-capitalists, nor the socialists have any doubts about the nature of the crimes of which he is accused.
The debate now is another, how will the succession. But if the president does not resign, she can leave the vacant position and her functions in the hands of the first vice president, the Republican Alba Vergés. For this reason, ERC has urged its partner to decide how they want to take over so that someone from JxCat continues to have the responsibilities that Borràs has carried out until now, as stated in their agreement from last year.
Junts per Catalunya, for its part, has met its executive this afternoon to discuss the matter, but does not plan to make any move yet. The party faces the debate on how to replace its leader in Parliament and what type of profile it chooses.
In recent days, in some circles, the name of Anna Erra, vice-president of the formation and mayor of Vic, who obtained more votes than Borràs in the Argelers congress, was sounding. In the Table, the other leader of Junts is Aurora Madaula, who was on the verge of being left out of the congress and does not have as much support among the bases. Whether one profile or another is chosen is relevant, both for internal balances and for what the training projects outwards.
The Table has met this Tuesday in its ordinary appointment, which takes place every week, and was also scheduled to hold a meeting of the expanded Table before noon, in which economic and internal matters of the Parliament are addressed, but it has not given time since the regular session had not finished after 2:30 p.m. today. It is expected that this meeting will be held on Thursday in which the issue of licenses due to age, the so-called golden retirements of the institution's officials, must be discussed.
In that meeting it has also been decided that the commissions can be held in a hybrid format with the votes in favor of Junts and CUP, the abstention of ERC and the two votes against the PSC. The lawyers, in a report, have advised against it and have indicated that it could be done with a reform of the regulation, but even so it has been decided to apply it already.
