The executive of Together for Catalonia (Junts) has agreed this Monday, by majority vote, to expel MP Cristina Casol from the parliamentary group, at the proposal of the party's permanent committee. The decision was made with 29 votes in favour, one abstention and eight against - among them, that of Laura Borràs. Casol, who was number two on the list of deputies for Lleida and is related to Laura Borràs, will become a non-affiliated MP, as she has stated that she has no intention of leaving parliament. She attended the meeting herself, as a member of the executive. With this decision by the party's governing body, the leadership of the parliamentary group will have to proceed with the expulsion of Casol as a parliamentarian still attached to Junts. The decision shows up the level of confrontation between sectors of the party, and took place in an atmosphere of tension. The meeting started at 10am and lasted more than two hours.
The MP had denounced the Junts group in the Catalan Parliament for gender-based harassment to the chamber's Equality Office, a matter that was declared closed because no "proven facts" were detected - although the office's report warned of a "deep-rooted sexism" within the group. After the closure of the case, the majority of the parliamentary group mobilized to demand Casol's resignation and, failing that, to expel her. In fact, more than twenty of the group's 32 parliamentarians signed a letter addressed to the secretary general Jordi Turull and the president and spokesperson of the group, Albert Batet and Mònica Sales, expressing this view.
For some of the party's leaders, this situation was already becoming "unsustainable". Almost two weeks ago, at a meeting of the Junts permanent committee, most of those present pointed out that the best solution would be Casol's resignation. The decision was postponed until a meeting of the parliamentary group last Tuesday, where a chronological exposition of this case was finally made and where Albert Batet announced that they were considering taking legal measures over "defamation and leaks" derived from the case of Cristina Casol, as well as from that of Aurora Madaula, one of the four Junts party vice-presidents. Finally, it was agreed that this debate would be addressed to the party executive, and that took place this Monday. The decision to expel the Lleida deputy brought to the surface a clash between the Turull and Borràs sectors. While the leaders closest to Turull argued out during the executive session that these incidents of "defamation" were "intolerable" and had affected the image of the party, those closest to Borràs asserted that it was a "disproportionate" decision. Aurora Madaula also connected telematically with the meeting and was one of those who argued most strongly against the decision.
Chronology of the Cristina Casol and Aurora Madaula cases
The allegations of harassment presented by Cristina Casol and Aurora Madaula have greatly strained the party's parliamentary group. In November 2023, Casol denounced the Junts parliamentary group to the Equality Office for gender-based harassment. At the end of that same month, in the context of Parliament's marking of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the then Bureau member and MP, Aurora Madaula, reported having suffered "silent sexist violence" from party colleagues. Within the ranks of the Junts parliamentary group, the majority of MPs were enraged by what they considered to be "defamation" and asserted that "political debate and disagreement is not sexism". This also strained the relationship with the speaker of Parliament, Anna Erra, as Madaula and Erra are the two Junts representatives on the chamber's governing body. Erra told the Junts vice-president to "reflect" on the question of continuing on the Bureau given the "lack of trust" between the two. Madaula's case then reached the party's Committee of Guarantees through three different routes: she reported it herself - later, she withdrew her complaint due to "distrust" of this body; so did 22 Junts parliamentarians, considering that the party vice-president was making "political use" of sexist violence and, in the same way, they presented a complaint to the Feminisms sector of the Junts party. These last two organs concluded that there could have been a violation of the party's Code of Ethics by Madaula.
In January, it became known that the Catalan Parliament's Equality Office had closed the case of Cristina Casol and 26 of the 32 Junts deputies told the party's management that the Lleida MP had to resign. Last week they intensified the message with the formal letter addressed to Turull, Batet and Sales. This coincided with the news that Aurora Madaula had raised her own complaint to Parliament's Equality Office, an investigation that will be carried out by an external company, as also happened with Casol's case. Pending the resolution of the Madaula case, it will be necessary to see if the same steps are followed as with Casol.
Madaula breaks her silence and expresses support for Casol
Junts vice-president Aurora Madaula spoke out a few hours later on social media X about the expulsion of Cristina Casol. Madaula, on medical leave, said that she was "breaking" her silence to support the deputy from Lleida. In the tweet, the vice-president denounced that "we have a problem if those who have to make the laws do not know them and do not apply them in their environment". "Male sexist violence in the political sphere has been well described and matches this situation closely," she said.
