Bureau considering suspending parliamentary activity as a result of the Juvillà case

BarcelonaThe Parliamentary Bureau is studying whether to suspend parliamentary activity following the decision by the Central Electoral Board (JEC) to withdraw strip CUP MP Pau Juvillà of his seat. ARA has learnt it is one of the options that has been valued in the last hours in negotiations between ERC, JxCat and CUP to respond to the situation of "repression" to which they consider the JEC to be subjecting them once again.

It would be a way, they believe, to show that the decision alters parliamentary majorities and the functioning of the Parliament. The regulation of the chamber, in any case, does not speak of suspension of the activity other than in planned breaks, meaning the pro-independence majority would have to justify the decision legally.

This issue has been addressed this Tuesday at the meeting that the Bureau held, which has to make a decision on what it will do as a result of the Board's ruling. Speaker Laura Borràs was given five working days to strip Juvillà of his post.

Yesterday, Pau Juvillà announced that he will reduce his parliamentary activity due to a serious health situation, but asked the Speaker not to strip him of his seat. Borràs, since this situation arose, has always assured that she would "accompany" Juvillà as far as he wanted to go.

The possibility of suspending parliamentary activity would be an unprecedented situation in Catalonia, since it would imply that the plenary sessions would be left on stand by – the next one was scheduled for next week. If this decision were to be taken, in any case, it is also unknown how long it would be kept in place: both Parliament and Juvillà himself have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to overrule the Board's decision, but there is still no response.

In the previous term, the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, was also stripped of his seat as a result of the JEC, since the Speaker, Roger Torrent, executed the resolution. However, he did not do it from the start, but also waited for the Supreme Court to rule – it rejected Torra's precautionary measures – to leave the president without a seat.