Electoral Board does not certify elected Toni Comín as Junts MEP

The Spanish Electoral Board (JEC) has decided not to certify elected candidate Toni Comín as pro-independence Junts MEP after the June 9 European Election.

The authority states that Comín cannot be a member of the European Parliament as he "has not fulfilled his duty to swear the Constitutional oath in Madrid."

The JEC considers that his decision follows Spanish legislation after the Spanish Supreme Court had ruled so in the past. However, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), during a case involving pro-independence Esquerra Republicana leader Oriol Junqueras back in 2019, said that the MEP status is certified "at the time of announcing the results."

In fact, the Supreme Court had, in the past EU election, decided not to certify former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, former minister Clara Ponsatí, and the now, for the second time, elected Toni Comín.

Authorities "temporarily leave" Toni Comín's seat in the European Parliament vacant while the "oath to the Constitution does not take place."

While in the 2019 election, Junts won 3 seats with Carles Puigdemont, Clara Ponsatí, and Toni Comín as its main candidates, in 2024, the party only retained 1 seat.

Comín, who repeated in Junts' candidacy, is the only member of the party to be elected. 

Junqueras barred from seat

On December 19, 2019, the European Court of Justice confirmed he had immunity as an MEP-elect. The EU chamber then accepted his seat on January 6, 2020 with effect from July 2, 2019, but three days later, Spain's Supreme Court denied that he had immunity on the grounds that the ECJ decision applied to the time when he was in provisional detention awaiting sentencing. According to the judges, since he was sentenced to prison and disqualified from public office in October 2019, he no longer had the right to be MEP.

A day later, on January 10, 2020 the European Parliament stripped him of his MEP status with effect from January 3, when the Spanish electoral board first brought the issue up before the Supreme Court's final decision.

Junqueras then announced he would challenge the decision in the Court of Justice of the European Union, which dismissed his case in December 2020 and, after his final appeal, it was rejected again in December 2022.