The Catalan Parliament complies with the order of the Central Electoral Board and withdraws the seat to Laura Borràs

The table of the Catalan Parliament has given the political tip to Laura Borràs. In an emergency meeting convened this Thursday afternoon it has been agreed to withdraw the seat of deputy, a decision that responds to the order issued a month ago by the Central Electoral Board (JEC), following the judicial conviction for corruption that weighs on the also president of Junts per Catalunya. At the end of March, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) imposed on Borràs a sentence of four and a half years in prison and another 13 years of disqualification for cutting public contracts to benefit a friend. She had refused to give up her seat, and was listed as suspended president of the Catalan Chamber, a condition that did not confer authority or functions. The decision taken this Thursday by the table marks a point and apart in the interim situation that was at the head of the Parliament.

It will be necessary to decide in a plenary session, convened for June 9, the name of the person who will occupy the presidency of the Parliament from now on. Despite the confrontation they maintain, Junts, ERC and the CUP agree that the position should remain in the hands of the independence movement. The name of Anna Erra, former mayor of Vic for Junts, has sounded a lot like a possible replacement for Borràs. Also that of Marta Madrenas, who was the successor of Carles Puigdemont at the head of the Girona City Council. For now, the decision of the table shelved a case that has been kicking for months.

The pro-independence majority of the Parliament initially tried to dodge the mandate of the Electoral Board, filing an appeal before the Supreme Court in which the precautionary suspension of the agreement taken by the JEC on May 3 was requested. An attempt was made, unsuccessfully, to maintain the status of deputy of Borràs, until the conviction for prevarication is firm. Despite this apparent common front in the Catalan chamber, the Borràs case had muddied relations between all Catalan parties. At the table they have representation ERC, PSC, the CUP and Junts. The first three have decided this Thursday in an extraordinary meeting to certify the cessation of Borràs.

Junts had so far avoided appointing a new deputy to replace its president, while the rest of the groups had repeatedly maintained that Borràs was dedicated to filing the reputation of the institution at the cost of becoming strong in a position that he could not continue to hold. She alleges that her judicial conviction for prevarication responds to a case of lawfare, an instrumentalization of justice for tortious purposes. "I have not been able to have a fair trial and, therefore, I have not been able to have a fair sentence," Borràs denounced in March, accusing the Catalan High Court of "partial", "politicized" and dedicated solely to "defending the unity of Spain". Junts tried to make balances to manage the matter, preventing the conviction for prevarication of his boss from splashing the campaign for the municipal.

In its conviction for prevarication and falsehood, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) asked the Government to grant him a partial pardon so that he does not enter prison. A proposal of this magnitude is far from common, although the Criminal Code provides that the courts that issue sentences themselves can request the measure of pardon when, depending on the "evil caused" and the personal circumstances of the convicted, the penalty is "significantly excessive".

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