The Constitutional Court issued a ruling this Tuesday in which it denied the protection requested by the leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, against the endorsement that the Contentious Courts gave to the demand that he appear before the Central Electoral Board (JEC). to be recognized as a MEP.
The ruling considers the issue resolved, because Junqueras managed to access the European Parliament, but avoids going into the substance of the appeal and establishing doctrine on the requirements for an elected MEP to be recognized as such.
With his appeal, Junqueras sought to have the guarantee body annul the judicial resolutions that at the time endorsed the decision of the Electoral Board to demand that the candidates elected in the European elections had to physically appear at its headquarters to be accredited as members of the European chamber. .
The Constitutional Court, in turn, has not gone into the substance of the matter, considering that it no longer has any purpose, because Junqueras was recognized and proclaimed as an MEP by the European Parliament itself, without the need to prove his appearance before said Electoral Board.
The matter may be relevant on the eve of new European elections in the event that the problem is reconsidered with an elected candidate - as could happen with the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont - who next June would continue to be the subject of an internal arrest order if It is located on Spanish soil.
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The Constitutional Court rejects Junqueras' appeal against the demands of the Electoral Board to recognize him as an MEP
On February 28, the Constitutional Court already adopted a resolution similar to the one approved in this plenary session, when the court agreed to reject Junqueras' appeal against the decisions of the Board itself.
The ruling approved today, however, responds to the challenge presented against the endorsement that the ordinary jurisdiction gave to the challenges that the ERC leader presented against the demands of the aforementioned electoral control body.
In both cases, the Constitutional Court has considered that Junqueras had already received satisfaction from the European Parliament, by not preventing him from entering the European Chamber, admitting him and proclaiming him as an elected candidate without having to physically go to Congress, the headquarters of the Board, to collect its minutes and proceed to comply with the oath or promise requirement of the Constitution.
The rapporteur for Junqueras' first challenge – Judge Laura Díaz, from the progressive sector of the court – in fact applied to that appeal a solution similar to that given to a previous request for protection made in the same sense by the leader of Together, Carles Puigdemont.
As was done in the case of the former president of the Generalitat, the court took into account that Junqueras accessed the European chamber without problems in its plenary session on January 13, 2020, with retroactive effects to the beginning of the legislature.
This recognition is what meant that, de facto, the requirement of receiving the minutes at the headquarters of the Electoral Board was no longer mandatory.
In view of all this, the second ruling on Junqueras—of which Judge Concepción Espejel, from the court's conservative group, was the rapporteur—uses the same argument that the lawsuit has lost its purpose, because the problem raised by the appellant was solved when he was able to access the European Parliament.
All these factors explain why his appeal was rejected, as happened with the first challenge, but in any case it is not clear for the future whether in a similar case the Electoral Board will be able to reiterate its demand for personal presence and swearing of the Constitution to collect the corresponding record.
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