Exiled MEPs-elect have no immunity despite ECJ's lawyer view, says Spain's Supreme Court

Spain's Supreme Court argued on Wednesday that former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and former Catalan minister Toni Comín, exiled in Belgium for their role behind the 2017 independence referendum, do not have political immunity despite the fact that both were elected MEP in the May 2019 European Parliament election.

This contravenes the opinion issued yesterday by the European Court of Justice Advocate General, Maciej Szupnar, who posited that Oriol Junqueras – jailed for the same events for which Puigdemont and Comín left the country – has the right to be an MEP having been elected as such in May, even though Spain blocked him from taking up his seat.

The Supreme Court maintains that Puigdemont and Comín are not MEPs because being so is dependent on taking Spain’s constitution oath as well as taking up the seats in the EU chamber rather than simply being elected, as Szupnar claimed was the case with Junqueras. According to the advocate general, "only voters" can decide who becomes an MEP.