PSC and communes propose a reform that leaves Borràs without salary

Under the current law, Laura Borràs has the right to receive 80% of her salary as president of the Parliament of Catalonia, which exceeds 150,000 euros per year, during the four years after leaving office.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
03 March 2023 Friday 11:25
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PSC and communes propose a reform that leaves Borràs without salary

Under the current law, Laura Borràs has the right to receive 80% of her salary as president of the Parliament of Catalonia, which exceeds 150,000 euros per year, during the four years after leaving office.

But before a possible condemnatory sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) on the leader of Junts, the PSC and the common ones, according to what La Vanguardia has learned, propose to modify ad hoc the law of the Statute of the Former Presidents of the Generalitat - which dates from 1988, with subsequent modifications, and which also applies to former presidents of Parliament – ​​so that leaders who have been convicted of crimes related to corruption cannot benefit from compensation.

The initiative could also affect another provision: the one that assigns a lifetime pension of 60% of salary after retirement to anyone who has served as president of Parliament for a minimum of two years.

Borràs would meet that requirement on March 12. But this question is more thorny, since the president was suspended in July 2022, and the legal discussion on the term exercise would be served.

ERC, for its part, is more prudent, and prefers to see first if the sentence is condemnatory and if in fact Borràs would have recognized the right to compensation. "We will see," argue the Republicans.

Be that as it may, and the trial for alleged crimes of documentary falsification and prevarication during her time at the head of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC) is seen for sentencing, the question of what will happen if she is disqualified opens. Following the same logic for which Borràs was suspended as a deputy, based on article 25.4 of the Parliament's regulations, the commons maintain that if the Junts leader does not resign of her own free will – which is what they believe she should do due to an “ethical” requirement ”– Legislation must be legislated to prevent it from collecting from public coffers if it is convicted by justice.

The Socialists, on the other hand, assure that they have not "entered in depth into the subject", but they consider that these privileges should be "reconsidered" and, in any case, they are open to studying what is the legal margin to establish a reform of a a law that when it was drafted did not foresee cases such as the one that may end up affecting Borràs.

It is, the sources point out, not to set a precedent and to prevent this situation from repeating itself. “We have to see if we have time to include this exception in the law”, indicate the commons, and add, like the Socialists, that the reform could be done by a single reading and be limited to a single article.

But it must be done, they explain, with the maximum legal guarantees, establishing what specific criminal offenses the amendment refers to and ensuring that cases such as those that affect pro-independence politicians – the common ones cite the republicans Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó, pending trial in the TSJC for their participation in the preparations for 1-O– do not fall into the same criminal bag.

In this sense, the sources consulted insist that it should be specified that these are crimes related to corruption, such as those referred to generically in the Parliament's regulations, and in which personal or third-party profit is produced. Therefore, it would not be the case of Artur Mas and Quim Torra either, who were convicted of disobedience and received compensation.

In an immediate plane there would also be the replacement of Borràs as president if she is disqualified. This Friday, in an interview on RTVE, Pere Aragonès placed the ball on the roof of Junts and urged the post-convergents to make a decision if necessary. The president opened up, however, to negotiating "joint proposals" despite the fact that he considered that the investiture pacts with Junts per Catalunya have been a waste of paper since they left the Government in October.

Likewise, the PSC has a lot to say on this issue and although the party does not rule out any option, the Socialists are cautious and assure that it is not their priority to win the presidency of Parliament.