It is one more reason to be in favor of independence, but also to cross reproaches, veiled attacks and criticisms with the political rival on account of the strategy, a habitual source of discord and disputes between Esquerra and Junts.
The Catalan independence movement has criticized more or less unanimously the decision of the Constitutional Court (TC) to paralyze the processing of the reform of the Penal Code and other legal measures before its final approval in the Senate, and at the same time recalls that in Catalonia already Similar situations have been experienced in the last decade. All the actors agree that this gives them more reasons to go ahead with their political project.
The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, lamented last night that Catalonia was the "test bench". "The Spanish right kidnaps the institutions and we will only overcome it with a courageous and progressive agenda and where Catalonia is definitely a sovereign republic," said the also general coordinator of Esquerra Republicana.
The ERC spokesman in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián, on the other hand, used humor and sarcasm. "The Constitutional Court decides to paralyze a plenary session of the Senate that it does not like, give Real Madrid one more Champions League, make Pepe Reina president of Congress and classify the PP's over-salaries as a tip," he asserted.
The Government of the Generalitat, for its part, has charged against the decision of the Constitutional Court and, incidentally, also against the Spanish Executive. The spokesperson for the Catalan Cabinet, Patrícia Plaja, has referred to the institutional statement by Pedro Sánchez this morning, which has recognized the "seriousness" of the events. “It is not a good day to set an example of anything”, Plaja said in relation to the democratic quality of Spain. And it is that for the Government, Catalonia was "a test bench" of the judicial instances. "We warned that this was only the beginning, and they did not believe us," said the spokeswoman regarding suspended debates in Parliament during the process, "and now they are scandalized."
“Unfortunately we have already experienced this film here (…). What is happening is a full violation of democracy and institutions", Plaja stressed, for whom the Spanish judicial system is "kidnapped by the extreme right". For the Catalan Executive, these judicial institutions now feel strong, which is why it has urged Sánchez to face the "coalition of the political-judicial right or continue collaborating with them when it suits them." Be that as it may, the spokeswoman has verified that the "uncomplexed politicization of justice" by the Spanish right is once again causing a "very dangerous anti-democratic spiral inappropriate for any State that considers itself the guarantor of full democracy."
On behalf of Junts per Catalunya, Jordi Turull pointed out that "the TC has certified that in Spain politics is set by the gowns and not the ballot boxes." "There is no division of powers, there is a crossing of powers. Zero-level democracy," added the general secretary of JxCat. "In Catalonia "we already know this and we have suffered from it for years and that is why we are working to leave," concluded the post-convergent leader.
The president of the formation, Laura Borràs, pointed out that they were already clear "that the Spanish state is irreformable." "Now instead of separation of powers there is desecration of powers. We warned that to prevent independence they would kill democracy. Nothing we didn't know, but one more reason to build a democratic and independent republic," added the also suspended president of Parliament.
The president of the Junts del Parlament group, Albert Batet, referred to the TC crisis this Tuesday at a press conference. "Some have tried their own medicine from what they have done in Catalonia," said the post-convergent leader, who criticized the PSOE for speaking of "violation of democracy" when in the past it had spoken of "protecting the rule of law" on occasions in which the judges intervened in the Catalan Chamber.
In addition, Batet has listed the times that the Constitutional has interfered in Catalan politics since it cut the Statute in 2010 until today. Among other issues, beyond the suspension of specific laws due to jurisdictional issues, it has indicated the suspension of plenary sessions, such as the one that was to invest Carles Puigdemont on January 30, 2018 or the one that was to be held on October 9, 2017 , the prohibition, suspension or cut of resolutions on the monarchy and self-determination, or the prohibition of commissions on the monarchy and the procés. "We will continue to defend that the State is irreformable and has a democratic problem", he concluded.
Puigdemont, former president of the Generalitat, has entered the reproach section. "When we demanded to maintain the position to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that arose, we did it thinking about situations like the ones that Spain is experiencing right now," says the also MEP. "But some preferred the progressive agenda in Spain instead of an independence agenda in Catalonia," adds the former president in a clear dart to ERC.
In the Republican ranks, the deputy Jordi Orobitg has attributed to his formation the merit of the situation that is currently being experienced and has complained that they were called "botiflers". "Are all those men and women who are now freaking out and spreading bread in the Spanish institutional crisis, as if it were their work, are the same ones who twelve hours ago called those of Esquerra botiflers while we were causing it?" Asked the deputy who is in charge of matters related to Justice in Parliament.
The truth is that the pro-independence formations have been drawing parallels for days between the situation in the Cortes Generales since last week and what has happened in Catalonia in recent years due to the process and the role that justice has played, in some occasion preventing a plenary session of Parliament from being held. "Judges, not only those of the Constitutional Court, have been violating parliamentary autonomy for years," Batet said today in this regard.
In fact, when on Thursday it was not clear whether the reform of the Criminal Code and other legal provisions, such as the one that modifies the election of the members of the TC, could be debated and voted in the Congress of Deputies, there were already those who were looking for similarities between that scenario and the suspension of the plenary session that was to invest Puigdemont remotely in January 2018, which ultimately did not take place.
