The Spanish Supreme Court has blocked the first attempt by Laura Borràs to suspend the removal of her Catalan parliamentary seat decreed last week by the Central Electoral Commission (JEC) after it concluded that there was a case of "subsequent ineligibility" to continue as an MP arising from her criminal conviction by the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC), which sentenced her to four and a half years in prison and a 13-year ban on holding office for fraud-related offences. In a ruling given this Monday, the Supreme Court upholds the removal of Borràs from the Parliament of Catalonia and rejects the request of her defence lawyer to nullify the JEC decision. The court alleges that Borràs's appeal does not offer "any argument" to justify the immediate action that it has demanded, specifically an urgent injuntion under which the JEC's decision would be suspended before its own view on the matter is heard by the court. However, it has given time until Friday for the public prosecutors and the JEC to present their positions on the less-urgent injunction measure, which will be heard in the ordinary way, with the views of all parties to be considered before a decision is taken.
In the ruling, the Spanish court stresses that Borràs, in her defence case, "sets out the constitutional importance of the rights violations that she alleges" in her argument against the decision, although, the text continues, "with respect to the urgent injunction, (...) no argument is put to justify the urgency" of the measure. Given this, the Supreme Court rejects Borràs's claim, and gives time until Friday at 3pm for the prosecutors and the JEC to take a position, and agrees to hear the case for an ordinary injunction. At the same time, the chamber also gives 10 days to the electoral body to have its say on an appeal presented by the Catalan Parliament also demanding the suspension of the JEC's decision under an ordinary injunction.
The JEC's decision to withdraw her seat
After listening to the arguments of both Borràs and the Catalan chamber, the Electoral Commission announced last Thursday that it was leaving the suspended speaker of the Parliament and Junts leader without a seat, taking its cues from the case of former president Quim Torra and former CUP deputy Pau Juvillà, who were expelled due to "subsequent ineligibility". In the resolution, the judges and academics who make the electoral body again look to Spain's Electoral Law to justify stripping Borràs of her seat, and also call for the next person on the Junts 2021 electoral list for the constituency of Barcelona, who is Antoni Castellà, take up the seat. In the same decision, the JEC rejected the allegations against it and argued that it was the competent body to decide on the future of the politician.
As soon as the JEC made its decision in Madrid, the Catalan Parliament approved the lodging of an appeal before the Supreme Court demanding an injunction, which has now begun to be processed. The Republican Left, Junts and the CUP voted in favour (68 deputies) and the PSC, Vox, the Comuns, Ciudadanos and the PP (52 seats) took a position against it.