The case of the CUP deputy for Lleida, Pau Juvillà, is history. After a few days of uncertainty in which the declarations went one way and the facts the other, the Catalan Parliament this Thursday tossed away the matters that were at the heart of the whole debate: would the Bureau of Parliament and its speaker, Laura Borràs, be willing to disobey the Central Electoral Commission or not? Was or wasn't Pau Juvillà an MP as far as the Bureau of the Parliament and its speaker were concerned and, consequently, could he vote either in person or by delegation of his vote? Both questions were answered in the negative: he was not called to the plenary session on Thursday and the delegation of his vote was not accepted. As a result, it is difficult to continue considering that he is an MP, even if solemn proclamations are made implying that he will continue to be backed as a parliamentarian.
It was game over after the last decision of the day was made, that of executing the JEC's decision to withdraw the seat, which was ordered by the secretary general of the Catalan Parliament. And it is difficult to understand the strategy designed in recent days and the path decided by its participants, including the suspension of the activities of Parliament which lasted about 48 hours, if it was all to end like this. It is clear, therefore, and Parliament accepts this under the doctrine of consummated facts, that its sovereignty is limited not only by the decisions of the Supreme Court and the High Court of Catalonia but also by the authority of a body such as the Central Electoral Commission. And that's all there is to it. It is difficult to swallow for all those who believed that a politician with the approach of Laura Borràs could not possibly do anything else than sacrifice herself through an act of disobedience - those who even suggested that disobedience in the current circumstances would preserve her as a political asset since a ban from office would have ranged from one to two years.
In fact, her political party, Together for Catalonia (Junts), has given unwavering support in public, but many of its leaders have distanced themselves in private from the steps it has been taking either because they didn't know about them beforehand, or because they weren't in agreement. The Juvillà case has also shown that the 52% achieved by independence supporters, if it ever existed as a path shared by the three pro-independence political parties, has long since evaporated. The most paradigmatic case is that of the CUP, which has had its own script and has played its cards in solitary. It's not new, of course. But we tend to forget that every time the CUP has had to position itself over a significant incident in recent years, it has ended up departing from the bloc of the other two major pro-independence parties and setting its own agenda.
There are already many key moments when this has happened since the day when Catalan president Artur Mas had to step aside in January 2016 to enable the first pro-independence government to be formed; then came the Catalan budgets returned to three different presidents, Carles Puigdemont, Quim Torra and Pere Aragonès; and neither can the decision not to facilitate the votes of its MPs for the investiture as president of Jordi Turull be left out of this chapter, just a few hours before his entry into Estremera prison was ordered by the judge of the National Audience. The CUP, rightly or wrongly, already has a history of discords with both Junts and ERC, and this always ends up turning the negotiations between the three parties into a dead end.
One last note: learning from one's mistakes is always better than shooting the messenger. From the first option, a different outcome can be achieved, better thought out and more understandable to public opinion. From the second, you only reinforce your mistake, and the next time, you make it again, because nothing has been learned.