Meeting regularly from nine in the morning, the Board of the Parliament of Catalonia had as its main point of the day to resolve the file of the deputy of Junts Francesc de Dalmases, whom the relevant commission decided to sanction for his "reprehensible" behavior by intimidating a TV3 journalist, leaving the scope of the punishment in the hands of the governing body of the Chamber, which could range from a public reprimand to a fine of 12,000 euros.
After the favorable opinion to the sanction of ERC, PSC, the CUP and the commons, issued in the commission of the Statute of the Deputy last Friday, the decision of the Table this Tuesday has been to fine 600 euros, the minimum sanction foreseen, and dictate a public reprimand to Deputy Dalmases, who may request a reconsideration.
The decision has been adopted thanks to the casting vote of the vice-president Alba Vergés, who exercises the functions of president, since there has been a tie of three to three among the six members of the Table: half were in favor of an alternative proposal which has not prospered, according to parliamentary sources. The Socialists were not in favor of the fine, considering that the warning "is not a symbolic thing." In any case, it is the first time that a sanction has been applied to a deputy under the code of conduct, so today's decision sets a precedent in the Chamber.
The facts examined according to the deputies' code of conduct date back to last July, when the episode of "intimidation" by Dalmases of a TV3 journalist took place after an interview with Laura Borràs, president of Junts, suspended as a deputy for her alleged involvement in a corruption case pending trial.
Thus, the Table, with two members from the ERC, two from the PSC, one from the CUP and another from Junts since Borràs stopped exercising the functions of president, has endorsed the theses of the Deputies' Statute commission, which Contrary to the criteria of its president, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, from Junts, who only proposed a mere reprimand due to the legal doubts of the code of conduct and the fact that the events took place outside the Parlament, he had made it clear that, “from the analyzed documentation", Dalmases's attitude was "clearly constituting an act of intimidation" and deserved a financial sanction for a "reprehensible" violation, although of a minor nature, of the aforementioned code of conduct.
