The Parliamentary Board debates this Tuesday by surprise a reform that would shield Borràs

The Parliamentary Board will debate this Tuesday by surprise a report that can prevent Laura Borràs from leaving her act as a deputy when the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) opens an oral trial. The president of the Chamber, charged with fracturing contracts to allegedly favor a friend when she ran the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, could benefit from a change in the regulation that would shield it until there is a final judgment.

On the pretext of conducting a “technical review of the articles of Parliament that raised problems of application or interpretation,” the Board asked on September 1 for a document with alternative proposals to the Chamber’s legal services. Despite the fact that the report is dated September 20, sources from the governing body of the Parliament explain that this Monday, it was suddenly added to the agenda of the Board meeting.

Article 25

The document proposes changes to improve the functioning of the Chamber after the covid pandemic, gender equality or linguistic aspects, among others, but the modification that would benefit Borràs would be that of article 25 of the Parliament’s regulations. The legal services propose, within the section “proposals for adaptation to the current legal system”, that a whole point is eliminated from the regulation.

Specifically, the one that states: “In cases in which the accusation is for crimes related to corruption, the Parliamentary Board, once the act of opening the oral trial is final and it is aware of it, must agree to the suspension of parliamentary rights and duties immediately “. And that continues with that “if doubts are raised about the type of crime or about the incompatibility regime applicable throughout the suspension, the opinion of the commission of the statute of the deputies is necessary.”

“Without precedents”

This is the case of Borràs, which is waiting for the TSJC to open an oral trial against her, presumably in the next few months. The legal services of the Parliament propose to eliminate this point because “it has no precedent or reference in our parliamentary law.” “It contemplates a cause of suspension of the exercise of a fundamental right (that of political participation) that presents serious doubts of constitutionality regarding the presumption of innocence, which is also a fundamental right,” says the report, to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access , in line with what the president of the Parliament has defended.

In that text also Another reference that could harm Borràs disappears from article 25. This is the reference to the fact that deputies can be suspended from their rights and parliamentary duties “if the indictment or opening of an oral trial is final and the plenary session of the Parliament agrees by an absolute majority, given the nature of the alleged facts. “.

Related news

If produced, these modifications would collide with the parties’ promises of regeneration, which as a general rule have accepted to suspend the militancy of a leader the reference of the indictment or the opening of the oral trial. Parliamentary sources explained that the parties have not received the report until this Monday afternoon that will be seen the next day at the Table.