court

Government spokesman calls court’s stance ‘political and legal indecency’ and vows defense of amendment’s constitutionality

Spanish Government appeal in court suspends the reform to fast-track the referendum on self-determination in Catalonia

JxSí and CUP-Crida Constituent resort to ‘fast-track’ legislation in Catalan parliament to register bill for October 1 vote on self-determination

Sector representatives ask Parliament to approve a new digital levy after Spain’s Constitutional Court overturned Catalan audiovisual tax earlier this month

Non-unanimous court decision means authorities to lose €20.5m intended to boost Catalonia’s audiovisual sector

A fortnight after dockworkers call off industrial action, EU Court of Justice calls Spanish government’s failure to liberalize ports ‘serious’

Catalonia’s top court upholds Prosecutor’s charges against Borràs and Esteve arguing need for investigation into evidence of criminal activity

Judges ban rules calling for more Catalan in film dubbing, education for new migrants and customer service

Judges ban rules calling for more Catalan in film dubbing, education for new migrants and customer service

The case against Montse Venturòs, the Mayor of Berga, for not taking down the Catalan pro-independence flag from the City Hall building during elections has been reopened. Although Berga’s trial court decided not to pursue the case last March after considering that exhibiting the Catalan pro-independence flag was not “an act of propaganda” nor disobedience, the court has now accepted the appeal presented by the Public Prosecutor asking for the case to be reopened. Venturós lawyer and party colleague Benet Salellas from pro-independence CUP said that reopening the case proved “how deeply politicized the Spanish justice is and how legal procedures are the main battering ram against the pro-independence movement and the democratic demands of Catalan citizens”.

Lluís Corominas and Ramona Barrufet, MPs from the liberal PDeCAT party and members of the Parliament Bureau, testified before the court this Friday in relation to the debate on independence in the Chamber that they allowed to take place. They are accused of disobedience and perversion of justice, the same crimes which Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell and two other members of the Chamber are accused of. Corominas and Barrufet appealed to the principle of parliamentary immunity which says they cannot be sued. On Monday, Forcadell and the Parliament’s first secretary, Anna Simó, used the same argument when they testified before the High Court. The last member of the Parliament Bureau to be brought before the court will be Joan Josep Nuet, an MP from the alternative left coalition ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’. He is due to testify on June 12.

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) has unanimously suspended a substantial part of the Catalan law for popular non-binding referenda, approved seven years ago in 2010. In particular, the magistrates have annulled the section which refers to calling a referendum at an autonomic level. They believe that this kind of referendum “is not foreseen in the Spanish Constitution nor in the State’s legislation”. Moreover, the TC has also decided to suspend the creation of the National Transition Advisory Council, a body created through a Catalan Government decree and aimed at beginning the necessary measures for completing Catalonia’s pro-independence process. In this fashion, the TC accepted the appeal presented by the Spanish Government, which claimed that the Catalan law for non-binding referenda was unconstitutional. 

“It is not a crime to speak up, discuss, and vote in a parliament,” said Carme Forcadell, President of the Catalan Parliament, in a press conference this Monday after testifying before the High Court. She and four members of her Bureau are facing charges for disobedience for not stopping a vote on a unilateral independence referendum in the Catalan chamber. Forcadell insisted that her Bureau will not bend before “those who want to restrict the freedom of a democratic parliament”. She also accused the High Court of violating the principle of parliamentary immunity when its obligation is to guarantee the right of elected representatives to debate freely and to vote in order to exercise their duties. On the other hand, the Bureau’s First Secretary, Anna Simó, representative of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) who was also summoned before the judge this Monday, argued that no court can prohibit a debate in Parliament on the issues that citizens are concerned about.

The APPG group on Catalonia, created last March in the British Parliament by MPs from the main parties in Westminster, have sent a letter to Spain’s President, Mariano Rajoy, expressing their “concern” over the prosecution of the Catalan Parliament’s president, Carme Forcadell, who faces court “for simply permitting the debate” on independence in the Chamber. The signers consider it “a clear breach of the fundamental democratic right to free speech” and “urge” the Spanish Government “to drop the prosecution”. Forcadell was brought before the court in December accused of disobedience for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote among the Catalan MPs on the 27th of July and will face trial again on Monday for the same case.

The President of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, immediately expressed on Tuesday his support to Parliament President, Carme Forcadell, and the four members of the Catalan Parliament Bureau, who are facing charges in court for allowing a debate on independence in the Parliament. Puigdemont said on Twitter: “All my support, out of a commitment to democracy”. The Catalan Vice President, Oriol Junqueras showed his criticism towards the citation by tweeting: “Carme Forcadell, Anna Simó, Lluís Corominas, Ramona Barrufet and Joan Josep Nuet have been summoned to appear before the High Court for giving a voice to the citizens. Democracy?”. And in a press conference after today’s Executive Council, the Catalan Government’s spokesperson, Neus Munté expressed the support of the whole Executive and she assured that “they will accompany them at all times” during the days their colleagues are summoned to testify.