Pau Juvillà, member of the Catalan Parliament for the CUP party, will have to take an absence of leave from political activity for a period due to a complicated health problem, his party has announced this Monday. Similarly, the deputy, who is third secretary of Parliament's procedural body, the Bureau, will not be able to attend the Bureau session called for Tuesday because he has medical tests. In no case, however, does he plan to leave his parliamentary seat as demanded - within days - by Spain's Central Electoral Commission (JEC). Sources close to the deputy say that he will continue to fight, supported by the other pro-independence and pro-sovereignty forces, to maintain his seat.
Juvillà, who is appealing against a ban from office for disobedience of the JEC, after displaying symbolic yellow ribbons in a public building in 2019, also confirmed in a tweet that he is standing fast against the demand of the electoral body.
Translation:
"This morning, the first step to return to return to the summit again. And despite everything, and it couldn't be anyother way, to guarantedd the rights of MPs and the sovereignty of Parliament" - Pau Juvillà
The emergence of the medical situation in Juvillà comes, then, in the midst of a struggle by the majority of the Catalan Parliament for him to maintain his seat, which has been threatened since the High Court of Catalonia sentenced him a six month ban from holding office for not removing yellow ribbons from a window of the Lleida city hall building when he was a councillor there. Since this ruling, the commitment made by the CUP party, the speaker of parliament Laura Borràs and all the pro-independence parties on the Bureau has been to protect the seat through the use of several mechanisms, based on the parliamentary committee that represents MPs' rights as well as the assertion of the sovereignty of the Catalan Parliament to allow him to retain his seat until his sentence is final.
The most recent of the proceedings taken in support of his position was when in a full session of Parliament last week, when the pro-independence and pro-sovereignty parties approved the lodging of an administrative appeal to the Supreme Court, demanding interim measures, against the decision of the Central Electoral Commission to withdraw his seat. Parliament approved the presentation of this appeal in the framework of the unitary strategy being conducted to defend the rights of deputies in the face of repression. It was after this that a new onslaught arrived: on Thursday, the JEC took another aggressive step to proceed with the cessation of Juvillà, giving an ultimatum to speaker Borràs, with a period of 5 working days - which ends this Friday - to comply with the instruction to withdraw his seat, and warned her that if if she did not do so, she would incur legal consequences.
The commitment of speaker Borràs
Borràs has repeatedly stated her commitment to preserving Juvillà's seat until the court ruling is final, and assured that the political rights of the CUP deputy will be respected no matter how much the JEC affirms otherwise. "I do not have the power or the will to withdraw the seat from Juvillà or any of the deputies, and I will act in accordance with the preservation of rights and freedoms," the speaker has argued in recent weeks, recalling that Parliament "is the seat of the sovereignty of the people of Catalonia" and that, on the other hand, the JEC "is an administrative entity".
Borràs's commitment to this issue has been publicly appreciated by Juvillà, and several political forces have also spoken out on the issue today. ERC spokesperson Marta Vilalta closed ranks with Borràs and assured that her party will stand at his side and support the other members of the Bureau in defending Juvillà's rights. The Catalan exile body, the Council for the Republic, also gave its support to both the speaker of the chamber and Juvillà in the struggle with the electoral board. The council called for Parliament's sovereignty to be defended "until the final consequences".