A recent ruling by the Constitutional Court has once again highlighted a legal issue in our legal system: do the presiding boards of Parliaments have an obligation to carry out a substantive review, in general, of the unconstitutionality of the motions for resolutions presented by different parliamentary groups? Indeed, the First Chamber of the Constitutional Court, in a ruling of February 23 of this year, annulled the agreements to admit for processing by the Bureau of the Parliament of Catalonia of some draft resolutions presented on the occasion of the debate on the general political orientation of the Government in September 2022. Some sections of these initiatives recognize the legality and legitimacy of the referendum of October 1, 2017, which could be interpreted as involving recognition of the eventual existence of possible legal effects, which could be subject to constitutional review. However, other sections were limited to expressing mere political objectives, such as those that urged the Government to develop its own competences, in order to reduce economic and political dependence on the Spanish state, for the purpose of preparing the exercise of the right to self-determination; those that urged strengthening the economic, fiscal, and financial sovereignty of the Generalitat; those that proposed laying the foundations for a constituent process; those relating to the objective of internationalizing the national reality of Catalonia, and those that referred to the advisability of acting with sovereignty, beyond constitutional and statutory limits, in guaranteeing the basic social rights of the majority of the population in different sectors. In all these latter cases, only a mere political declaration is expressed that could hardly be interpreted as involving any legal effect, in the sense of its impact on the creation, modification, or repeal of legal norms. It is not superfluous to recall that the bureaus of the Parliaments are bodies for directing parliamentary work. Thus, the bureau of the Parliament, as a collegiate governing body of the Parliament and made up of the president, two vice-presidencies, and four secretariats, exercises parliamentary functions, budgetary functions, and functions relating to the organization of the chamber's administration. The exercise of the bureau's parliamentary functions focuses on the qualification, admission for processing, and decision on the processing of parliamentary documents and writings.

The fifth chamber of the Administrative Litigation of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has issued a precautionary measure that obliges the Parliament of Catalonia to display the flag of Spain outside the building in an "immediate and permanent" manner. The decision comes in light of the fact that, until now, the state flag and the Catalan flag only flew together on the facade on plenary days, as acknowledged by the report of the chamber's own legal counsel.

The Fifth Chamber of the Administrative Court of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has issued an injunction requiring the Parliament of Catalonia to display the Spanish flag on the exterior of its building "immediately and permanently." The decision comes in response to the fact that, until now, the Spanish and Catalan flags were only flown together on the façade on days when plenary sessions were held, as acknowledged in the report prepared by the Parliament's own legal counsel.

We read in the ARA A report from a listener (who was unaware of the existence of this figure or entity) on the expenses of Catalan parliamentary groups during 2024 "is stirring up controversy again."

Five parliamentary groups, with an absolute majority, supported the creation of a new law regulating cooperative housing for use, a non-profit housing model based on self-managed communities. The bill presented this Wednesday in Parliament seeks to improve the legal framework within which these entities operate, which currently provide 1,175 homes spread across 66 buildings in Catalonia.

You can eat at the Parliament's restaurant only with prior authorization and after passing through strict security controls, which require you to leave your ID at the checkpoint until you leave. This applies to those of us who are homeless; members of parliament and civil servants enter through other, prearranged channels.

A man waits impatiently on a street in Barcelona's Sant Pere neighborhood. It's August 6, 2024, and streams of tourists are passing by. It's already dark, he's restless, and suspicious of everyone. He pays particular attention to those who are doing nothing, who are simply waiting. Are they following him? He's waiting alone for a car, he doesn't know the make or the driver, only who will be in the back seat. 190 kilometers away, near Perpignan, the closest friends of former president Carles Puigdemont are beginning to arrive at the house where they have been summoned. It's a special meeting. Gonzalo Boye is there, much more so than his lawyer, and also Jami Matamala. They are there to have his last dinner with Puigdemont, as there is a feeling that it will be the last meeting with the former president after he is free. At the appointed time, the car that the Junts leader normally drives arrives, but there is no sign of him. Only his phone. The diners are astonished; they dine and leave: they had no idea they were part of a diversionary maneuver.

The last decision by PSC, ERC and CUP bureau members before Parliament broke up for the summer was to apply Article 25.4 of the rules of procedure and suspend Laura Borràs as an MP and as speaker. When it seemed that this episode was closed at least until September –when negotiations between JxCat and ERC to agree on Borràs's replacement will begin– JxCat registered a request for the bureau to reconsider and reject the Speaker's suspension. The party warns that they "will exhaust all administrative routes before going before European courts", the first of which is to appeal to Spain's Constitutional Court (TC).

Now, finally, age-based leave, a regime that, as revealed by ARA allowed Parliament workers to continue to be paid without working, will no longer appear in any of the chamber's regulations. This Thursday, the Institutional Affairs Committee has unanimously voted to repeal Article 79 of the Statutes, which allowed age-based licenses. Thus, after this newspaper explained that the chamber pays €1.7m per year to officials who no longer work there, the Parliament has definitively eliminated this privilege. All parties were in favour of a derogation, which more than one has described as a "moral imperative". There are still, however, several questions surrounding the issue.

You don't have to be an aerospace engineer or be named Edward Aloysius (Murphy) to know that if something can go wrong, you just have to give it time. This week, when it seemed that we had reached peak ridicule, two parliamentary seats proved we can go even further. Two votes in different circumstances, but with the common denominator of fragile and unstable government majorities captured by tacticism and with superlative doses of narcissism and gesticulation

Is 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.

A total of 21 workers and an expenditure of €1.7m in salaries. These are the data that Parliament delivered to the newspaper ARA on January 14, regarding the number and the salaries received by civil servants who had been granted age-based leave. However, this data corresponds only to April 2021, since Speaker Laura Borràs explained this Wednesday to RAC1 that during this year, before the reform was approved that tightened the conditions for access to this special system, up to 12 workers requested this leave. The data was not passed on to ARA on January 14 because only the information relating to April was given, arguing that it was the date of the first request for public information.

Age-based leave will be no more. ARA's exclusive has resulted in a complete rectification from Parliament's Bureau, which on Tuesday reversed the reform it had approved just three weeks ago and, according to parliamentary sources, has decided to eliminate age-based leave altogether. The system allowed workers over 60 to continue receiving their salary without working until retirement.

Two former secretaries general of the Parliament of Catalonia and nineteen other officials of the chamber receive almost 100% of their salaries despite the fact that they no longer work there. This is a special regime called "age leave" that exists only for workers of Catalonia's Parliament since 2008. It is an unprecedented privilege that has no comparison in the common private market or in the administration of the Generalitat, and that until now could be requested when workers reached the age of 60 and had worked for over fifteen years in the parliamentary administration. They then receive this pay until they reach official retirement age. ARA has learnt from a freedom of information request made in April last year and recently answered, up to 21 former officials are covered by this system, with a salary totalling €1.7m per year (see graph).

Laura Borràs is already the new the Catalan Parliament's new Speaker. The Junts per Catalunya candidate takes over from Roger Torrent after being chosen by a majority of votes in the second vote to elect the presidency, with the support of the deputies of Junts and Esquerra. The CUP has chosen not to support her, but has ceded a vote to JxCat MP Lluís Puig, exiled in Belgium, "out of anti-repressive solidarity", since he was not allowed to vote remotely. After Borràs was voted in as speaker, Anna Caula (ERC) were elected as first vice-speaker and Eva Granados (PSC) as second vice-president. Then came the vote for the other members of the parliamentary bureau, which were won by Ferran Pedret (PSC), Jaume Alonso Cuevillas (JxCat), Rubén Wagensberg (ERC) and Pau Juvillà (CUP). Overall, supporters of independence make up five of seven of the seven members.