The three exit doors that mark the future of Laura Borràs

Borràs and Turull, on the 30th in Barcelona, ​​after knowing the sentence that condemned the president of Parliament. Quique Garcia (EFE)

Laura Borràs's decision to link her legal defense to the position of president of the Parliament of Catalonia —from which she was suspended in July last year— has opened a rift between Junts and the rest of the parties represented in the Catalan Chamber, which has not stopped to enlarge.

At the moment, in the formation founded by Carles Puigdemont they are trying to contain, until after the municipal elections in May, the debate on the consequences of the conviction for prevarication and falsehood that weighs on Borràs.

But in the Catalan legislature the pressure does not cease: more and more voices are calling for a relief that ends almost eight months of interim.

Borràs' future hangs by three threads: the result of this internal debate in Junts,

“The interim Parliament cannot be used as one more piece of the self-defense strategy.

Legitimate, but ultimately personal.

The Parliament must have a presidency with full functions and not a vacant presidency ”, insisted the

Pere Aragonès, of ERC, in an interview with the Efe agency published this Thursday.

The Republican guarantees that Junts would continue to hold the presidency of the House but urges him to take the "first step" by proposing the name of a substitute, something that is still not on the table at the moment.

Quite the contrary: last Wednesday, Junts registered a letter asking to lift the suspension that has weighed on Borràs since July, considering that the sentence assumes that there had been no personal gain.

The future of Borràs is now, first of all, in the hands of the JEC.

The electoral law includes as a cause of supervening ineligibility a sentence of disqualification, even if it is not final.

That is the case of the current suspended president.

The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia found her guilty of the crimes of prevarication and documentary falsification for dividing contracts to benefit a friend between 2013 and 2017, when she presided over a cultural entity that depended on the Generalitat.

The sentence imposed is four and a half years in prison and 13 years of disqualification.

Citizens, Vox and PP then asked the electoral authority to withdraw the seat from Borràs.

There are two precedents: what happened with the

Quim Torra and the former anti-capitalist deputy Pau Juvillà, who lost their seat after being convicted of disobedience.

The Electoral Board must meet shortly and, if it decides to withdraw Borràs' credentials, the seat will be occupied by the next person on the Junts por Barcelona list.

This is Antoni Castellà, another deputy framed in the toughest sector of the independence movement.

The secessionist groups have always criticized that the JEC, an administrative authority, can decide on the composition of a legislative Chamber, and they point out that the Parliament's regulations determine that only a final ruling can justify the withdrawal of a seat.

Borràs's lawyers are working on the appeal that they will present to the Supreme Court.

"We will not let this arbitrariness of a part of the Spanish justice mark our political life," said the

party's

The speed of Vox, Ciudadanos and PP in bringing the

before the JEC conditions two debates related to the president.

On the one hand, the modification of the regulation so that members of the Table can be withdrawn, registered on Wednesday by the Socialists.

On the other, the legal changes to reduce the perks of the presidents of the Chamber and which would imply, from the outset, that the current suspended president would not receive even the monthly allowance (she has no right now, since she has a salary as president of Junts) nor the life pension from the age of 65, which would disappear from the legal system.

Two debates that, although they are shared across the Chamber, are not exempt from the general confrontational framework of the May municipal elections.

The PSC spokesperson, Alícia Romero, believes that it will be possible for the change in the regulation to be raised to the Board of Spokespersons next Tuesday and included in the agenda of the plenary session that starts on the 18th. The reform states that two parliamentary groups or two-fifths of the deputies may request the removal of a member of the Bureau of the Chamber.

If she receives the green light, the articles could be applied to Borràs in the first plenary session of May, just before the elections, and remove her from her position.

In this latest operation, the role of ERC is essential and for this reason the Republicans are trying to take the pressure off by asking Junts to take the first step.

And they emphasize that the judicial situation of Borràs does not respond to his condition as an independentist.

"She has every right to file appeals and continue defending her innocence, but it is not a case comparable to others related to the referendum on October 1 or to political repression," Aragonès insists.

Within Puigdemont's party different sensibilities coexist.

Borràs's position as president of the formation is theoretically shielded by a reform of the statutes that says that, before a sentence that the party considers a case of lawfare

judicial persecution), the convicted person can continue in office.

But even the president of the guarantees commission that has to determine that point, Magda Oranich, has questioned that idea, raising criticism from sectors close to Borràs.

So far the parliamentary group has closed ranks around the party president, but those who believe that it is time to put an end to the adventure already have the name of her successor: the mayoress of Vic, Anna Erra.

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