Unionist parties reject session to swear in Turull

Calling a parliamentary session on Thursday evening to swear in MP Jordi Turull as Catalan president was a move from the main pro-independence parties that took politics by surprise, and in particular the unionist parties. Ciutadans (Cs), the party opposed to independence with the most seats in the Catalan parliament, reacted with a call to cancel the session.

In a radio interview on Thursday morning, Cs leader Inés Arrimadas said the investiture debate called for 5pm was simply a way of pitting the Catalan chamber against the Spanish authorities, and she expressed her party’s intention to demand that the session be called off until Turull’s situation is made clearer following his court appearance on Friday.    

Turull, who spent a month in prison after the declaration of independence in October, has been summoned to appear in the Supreme Court on Friday as part of the investigation into his role in the independence bid. On Wednesday, speaker Roger Torrent agreed to call the session in parliament so Turull could take office before his court appearance, which could possibly see him sent back to jail.

While Arrimadas was critical of Torrent on Thursday morning, so was the leader of the Catalan wing of Spain’s ruling People’s Party. Xavier García Albiol called Torrent’s decision “arbitrary” and “typical of a banana republic”. Reacting to the news on social media, Albiol also questioned the legality of the session and claimed it “infringed the rights of MPs”.  Meanwhile, a spokesman for the People’s party in Madrid said the attempt to swear in a candidate involved in legal proceedings was to “mock the public and the rule of law”.

Yet, Spanish justice minister Rafael Catalá admitted during a Thursday morning radio interview that the parliamentary session had been called in-line with the regulations and that his government was unable to challenge it and therefore “it will go ahead”. Català also said that should the court on Friday allow Turull to go free, then Spanish King Felipe VI will have no choice but to authorize his appointment. Català did however accuse the pro-independence parties of “playing dirty” in looking for confrontation with the courts.