While the Catalan Parliament debates whether or not to abide by the Supreme Court's decision endorsing the removal of Quim Torra's status as an MP, the Catalan president has made another move to try and halt the decision which, should it go ahead, will have to be executed next Monday. Torra has presented a document of allegations which are to be put to the Central Electoral Commission calling for the suspension of the disqualification which the commission has ordered.
Torra insists that the Electoral Commission is not competent to decide the stripping of his credentials as a parliamentary deputy, that his case is not included in any of the situations quoted by the law as being grounds for the loss of an MP's seat, and that the execution of the decision would result in a blatant violation of his fundamental rights. Thus for these reason he demands the decision be suspended. He also sets out the reasons why electoral authority members such as law professor Carlos Vidal Prado who participated in this decision should recuse himself: due to an attitude towards the case which is "radically incompatible with impartiality".
The Supreme Court decided on Thursday - for the second time - to approve the Central Electoral Commission's decision to dispossess the Catalan president of his seat in parliament. The pronouncement of the Supreme Court has meant that all eyes are once again on the Parliament of Catalonia, which will have to decide whether or not to abide by the ruling, after initially choosing to ignore the disqualification issued by the electoral authority. The office of the Catalan presidency has made a statement denouncing that heavy pressure is being placed on Parliament to follow the court's line.
The speaker of the house, Roger Torrent, has called a meeting of the Bureau, the committee which makes Parliament's procedural decisions, for 12:30pm on Monday. Also on Monday, a session of Parliament itself has been called - and there it will be seen whether the disquailfication ruling is executed or not.
Sources in the ERC party say that, this weekend, contacts with its Catalan government partner JxCat - Quim Torra's party - as well as the third pro-independence party in Parliament, the CUP, will be intensified in order to decide how the Catalan chamber should respond to the Supreme Court's endorsement of Torra's removal from his seat.