Emotional and controversial debate in Parliament after imprisonments

Parliament was expected to hold the second round vote to elect MP Jordi Turull as new Catalan president on Saturday morning. But with Turull in prison in Madrid with four other pro-independence politicians yesterday, the president of the Catalan Parliament suspended the vote and organized, instead, a debate. "Jordi Turull cannot be here, today, because he is in prison. The presidential candidate is jailed, as are other MPs, including my predecessor, Carme Forcadell," said Torrent. "It's obvious that in these conditions, the swearing-in vote cannot be held. But we need to talk," he added, stating that "repression cannot be normalized."

The leader of the People's Party, Xavier-García Albiol, said that the session had to be suspended, with a debate scheduled at another time. Torrent, however, said that all members should be allowed to speak. Showing his opposition, the four MPs from the Spanish ruling PP party left the chamber. The Spanish government had urged Torrent to suspend the plenary session and warned that it would take "measures" if he did not. The largest unionist party, Ciutadans (C's) decided to stay, and its leader, Inés Arrimadas, criticized Torrent for "doing politics" despite having to represent "all MPs."

"Stop making speeches for Esquerra Republicana from the speaker's chair!" she said. Arrimadas also expressed that the independence process has "failed." "It's enough, you've lost, this is a social, economic, institutional and political failure," she insisted.

"Our party president is in prison, and our secretary general has gone into exile. Many of our members are being investigated in a macro-case. But we are still here, more convinced than ever. We are not afraid, we will not give up," said the spokesman of pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC), Sergi Sabrià. "Democracy in Spain has definitely been suspended," he added.

His tone was quite critical of the Spanish judiciary’s decision to jail Catalan leaders and stop Parliament from voting on Jordi Turull as the new presidential candidate. As was Quim Torra, from the biggest pro-independence group, Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), for which Turull is an MP. "Do you want the parliament and Catalonia to be an immense prison?" asked Torra, telling unionist members of the chamber that pro-independence forces would be "the first to denounce it" if they "were persecuted for their ideas." "They want us silenced, they want us frightened, they even want us in prison and in exile," he said.