It's a re-run of the script from the case of Catalan president Quim Torra. This Thursday, at its meeting, Spain's Central Electoral Commission (JEC) has agreed to withdraw the parliamentary credentials of Pau Juvillà, Catalan parliamentary deputy for the pro-independence CUP party and member of the parliament's procedural Bureau, convicted of disobedience although still awaiting a final sentence from the Catalan High Court. The electoral administrative body rejected the arguments put by the Catalan Parliament and declared the seat vacant, in order for the Catalan chamber to cover it by replacing Juvillà with the next name on the party list. Thus, the electoral arbitrator rules in favour of the three parties of the Spanish right, the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos, whose complaint led to the decision. The pressure us now passed to the speaker of the chamber, Laura Borràs, who must decide whether to abide by the resolution or disobey it.
A month ago, after the conviction and the appeal from the triple right, the electoral body demanded that the Catalan speaker report on the situation of the CUP parliamentarian due to his "unexpected ineligibility", and the twenty page submission arrived last week. Now, the JEC has once again taken upon itself the role of executing sentences.
After studying the arguments, the electoral board concludes that Juvillà indeed "incurs" in the unexpected ineligibility referred to in Article 6.2 of the Spanish electoral law for having been found guilty and given a non-final sentence that bans home from holding "elective public office and functions of government and administration". In this scenario, the body agrees, according to its resolution, to "annul [his] credentials as an elected member of the Parliament of Catalonia", "declare his seat vacant" and it orders that "credentials be issued to the next candidate" from the CUP list in the constituency of Lleida, for which he was elected.
The JEC has forwarded the resolution to the deputy Pau Juvillà, the Parliament of Catalonia and the parties that filed the complaint. The agreement can now be appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court. The case is very similar to that in which the then-president of the Catalan government, Quim Torra, had his parliamentary seat removed, also after being convicted of disobeying the electoral board, and over the same issue: a refusal to remove symbolic elements - yellow ribbons and banners - showing solidarity with the pro-independence political prisoners. The electoral board even cites the Torra case as a precedent in its argument.
Processed in a month
Just over a month ago, on December 14th, 2021, Juvillà was banned from holding office for six months by the High Court (TSJC) for disobedience - of the JEC, the same body now tasked with deciding on his seat - for failing to remove the yellow ribbons from the window of the anti-capitalist party's office in the Paeria, city council building in Lleida, during an election campaign period in 2019. Juvillà argued that he was exercising his right to freedom of expression. After the conviction, both the parliamentary committee on the rights of MPs and the full session of the Catalan Parliament - with the votes of the three pro-independence parties, ERC, Junts and the CUP, and also the Socialists (PSC) and the left-wing Comuns - agreed to protect Juvillà's seat until the sentence was final. But the PP, Ciudadanos and far-right Vox laid a complaint with the electoral commission, which on December 22nd gave Borràs a period of ten days to report on the situation of the deputy.
The arguments of the Parliament of Catalonia arrived last week on the JEC's desk. The Catalan chamber asserted that Juvillà had the right to retain his seat and place on the Bureau because his situation did not imply any "case of incompatibility", did not constitute any the cases given for the loss of the status of MP, and nor was he in any situation which the rules of Parliament decree would modify his condition as an MP. But these arguments were not accepted.
The right celebrates
If hours before, they were keeping their heads low after the Supreme Court overturned their appeals against the pardons issued to the pro-independence political prisoners, Spain's triple right were quick to celebrate the decision of the Central Electoral Commission. This was the case of the spokesperson for Ciudadanos in the Catalan chamber, Carlos Carrizosa, who awarded himself a medal on Twitter: "Just like Torra in the past, the CUP deputy Juvillà must leave his seat and Borràs has nothing left up her sleeve to stop it. The JEC, at the request of Cs, has made it clear. Once again, the democratic rule of law is stopping the totalitarians in their tracks."