Sued MP before the court: “I’m not pro-independence, I’m just a democrat”

Barcelona.- The Secretary of the Parliament Bureau, Joan Josep Nuet, testified before the court this Monday in relation to the debate on independence that he and the other three Parliament secretaries allowed to take place. They are all accused of disobedience and perversion of justice, the same crimes which the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, is accused of. “I’m not pro-independence, I’m just a democrat,” said Nuet before the High Court’s magistrate. When he left the court, the MP from the alternative left coalition ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ called for “unity” amongst those parties which support the referendum. “If we act as a whole, we then all will be free,” he said.

Although he was initially excluded from the investigation, the Prosecutor decided to include Nuet in the lawsuit as well, together with left-wing pro-independence party ERC MP Anna Simó, and Lluís Corominas and Ramona Barrufet, MPs from the liberal PDeCAT party. At first, the prosecutor stated that Nuet “didn’t mean to encourage the constituent process” but acted “driven by the erroneous belief that he was fulfilling his functions as a member of the Parliament Bureau”. Moreover, the Prosecutor pointed out that Nuet’s vote, since he abstained from approving the proposal for a referendum, “wasn’t decisive” for advancing the proposal. However, he did vote the same way as the others did and supported the pro-independence roadmap so that it could be debated in the Chamber.

In his statement, Nuet explained that the Parliament’s regulations prevent the Bureau from analyzing the motions presented in the General Politics Debate from a political point of view. Its aim is only to settle whether they are “consistent” with what has been debated. That’s why he voted in favor of advancing the motion on a unilateral referendum. On the other hand, he abstained from voting on the motion’s content.

Similarly to what happened when Simó, Corominas, and Barrufet headed to the court last April, a broad range of political forces showed their support in person, and were joined by many representatives from the civil society and anonymous citizens who rallied around the Chamber’s Secretary.

Jo no sóc independentsita, ho dic del dret i del revés. No es pot jutjar les accions de la mesa en funcio de si les fan indepes o no indepes. Però tothom sap que això va d’independència i que darrera d’aq procediment hi ha un debat sobre la indy, no hi hauria de ser però hi és. I dir la veritat i dir les coses pel seu nom era la meva obligació, no podía mentir davant la jutge instructora.

I’m not pro-independence, I say it out loud. The actions taken by the Parliament’s Bureau cannot be judged depending on whether they are carried out by pro-independence supporters or not. Everyone knows that all this investigation has to with independence. It shouldn’t be like that but it definitely is and that’s what I told the magistrate, because I was meant to tell the truth.