Hemicycle of the Parliament of Catalonia, in a file image. Massimiliano minocri
The Constitutional Court has addressed a new warning to the Parliament of Catalonia to prevent processing proposals that imply "violating the constitutional and statutory order", and has estimated the appeal filed by 32 deputies of the Ciutadans Parliamentary Group in the Chamber. The reason for the challenge was the decision of the Bureau of the Parliament, adopted in October 2019, consisting of admitting to processing the proposed resolution "in response to the judgment of the Supreme Court on the events of the first of October" formulated by the groups of ERC and Junts per Catalunya and the parliamentary subgroup CUP-Crida Constituent. The initiative advocated the right to self-determination. The ruling has not had unanimous support, when Magistrate Ramón Sáez, of the progressive sector, estimated that the right violated has been that of the proposing groups, which were prevented from defending their initiative against the conviction of the independence leaders.
The sentence – of which the magistrate César Tolosa, of the conservative bloc has been rapporteur – considers that the Bureau of the Parliament of Catalonia returned to "violate the constitutional and statutory order" with said resolution. The court mentions that the Bureau also accepted the amendments submitted by the proposing groups. And he considers that, when he made both decisions, the governing body of the chamber was aware that "it was failing in its constitutional duty to comply with the decision of this court, that is, that the Bureau processed the initiative and admitted the amendments knowing that there were resolutions of this court that prevented them from proceeding."
Ciudadanos argued, in turn, that the admission of the proposed debate violated their right to exercise representative office under conditions of equality – established in article 23.2 of the Constitution – in relation to the right to participation of citizens in public affairs through their representatives, in accordance with the first paragraph of the same precept. Cs argued that the proposals to respond to the Supreme Court's ruling on the procés were also contrary to several judgments issued by the Constitutional Court previously. Therefore, they added, as parliamentarians they were in the position of not participating in the debate of these proposals, thereby abandoning their functions, or of participating in the session knowing their illegality.
The ruling considers that the Bureau of the Parliament should, in fact, have prevented the debate of the proposed resolutions, and that by not doing so it caused the damage to the core of the representative function (ius in officium) of the appellant deputies. The court argues, in short, that there was thus an infringement of his fundamental rights, which determines the upholding of the application filed and the nullity of the acts expressly challenged.
The sentence has had the vote against the magistrate Ramón Sáez, who considers that the Constitutional is unduly expanding the content of the fundamental right to the exercise of the representative function of the plaintiff deputies, to whom the admission to processing of the proposals of other groups only obliges them to intervene in the debate. Sáez adds that with this ruling the body of guarantees is sacrificing the fundamental right of the proposing deputies, because they are prevented from submitting their initiatives to deliberation and defending them in the chamber. The magistrate considers that the sentence implies "an unacceptable protection of the parliamentary function, by expelling from the political debate relevant issues such as the form of State, criticism of the acts of the Head of State and the subject of sovereignty, substantially affecting the democratic principle."
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