Is Pau Juvillà still a member of the Parliament of Catalonia?

BarcelonaIs Pau Juvillà still a member of the Parliament of Catalonia? Although Speaker Laura Borràs, the pro-independence members of the Bureau and their parliamentary groups defend it, in practice there are two ways to check it: if he can vote and if he gets paid at the end of the month. Sources of the CUP assure that Parliament's secretary general Esther Andreu has already informed Juvillà he will stop receiving his salary, in execution of the resolution of the Central Electoral Board (JEC). The secretary general denies this.

Andreu allegedly informed the former CUP MP Maria Sirvent –who is now Juvillà's adviser– verbally last Friday that both he and the advusers he had named would stop drawing a salary. CUP MP has received his full salary in January, but once Parliament's officials apply the resolution of the JEC the situation would change. For practical purposes, then, Juvillà would no longer be paid. Speakership sources assure that the communication that was made to Juvillà "was not in these terms", but they do not detail what the general secretary told him.

And will he be able to vote? As a result of his state of health, Juvillà has not attended Parliament today and is not expected to do so in the coming days. The CUP has not requested the delegation of his vote for the plenary session scheduled for next week and, therefore, the Bureau has not been forced to take a potentially complicated decision: to accept an MP who has been suspended to delegate his vote. In fact, the JEC ordered Juvillà to be replaced with the next person on the list for Lleida immediately.

Torra's precedent

CUP sources explain that they have not yet received any formal communication about Juvillà being stripped of his seat. In fact, this very Tuesday the parliamentary tension has focused on the Speaker Borràs's proposal – backed by JxCat, ERC and the CUP – to suspend parliamentary activity as a response to the "interference" of an administrative body such as the JEC. This suspension would be accompanied by the subsequent convening of a commission of the statute of the deputy precisely to reaffirm Juvillà's seat. This, however, seems to be refuted by allegations that Parliament has already suspended Juvillà.

It is now two since then Catalan president Quim Torra also was stripped of his seat in application of a JEC resolution. Then, however, the sentence was only enforced after it was upheld by the Supreme Court. This procedural moment has not yet been reached in Juvillà's case. Parliament has already executed the Electoral Board's ruling, despite the Supreme Court not having yet ruled on the appeal.