Constitutional Court dismisses request by Catalan Parliament to sideline its 2 members suspected of bias

Spain’s Constitutional Court has unanimously decided to reject the Catalan Parliament’s requests to sideline 2 of its 12 members from the debate and final verdict on the law and decree regarding Catalonia’s self-determination consultation vote. The Catalan Parliament considered that the Court’s President, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, and the rapporteur of the appeal against the Catalan Law on Consultation Votes, Pedro José González-Trevijano, were not impartial on this issue.

Pérez de los Cobos has been member of the People’s Party – which runs the Spanish Government – and González-Trevijano had worked with the PP’s think tank. In addition, they both share extreme Spanish nationalist stances: the first one has publicly insulted Catalan identity on several occasions and the second one has defended the maintenance of the shrine where Franco remains are exposed.

The Court has been quick to reject the two formal challenges, which were filed earlier this week. However, it has not issued any other decision regarding the temporary suspension of Catalonia’s self-determination consultation vote, scheduled for the 9th of November.

In May last year, the Catalan Parliament had already challenged Pérez de los Cobos and requested that he be put aside from the Court’s debate and verdict over the ‘Declaration of Sovereignty’, which was approved by the Catalan Parliament on the 23rd January 2013, after the democratic mandate expressed by an 80% majority of Catalans in the last elections, held in November 2012.

According to the courts, accepting an appeal 5 hours after it is registered by calling an urgent meeting ‘is not being biased’

Finally, the Court also wanted to respond to the accusations of not being impartial and siding with the Spanish Government for having accepted the Executive’s appeals just 5 hours after they were filed, through a non-scheduled meeting that was called after the appeals were filed. For the first time in the democracy, the Court met on a Monday. All those exceptional measures and the speed with which they were adopted ‘are not evidence of a lack of impartiality’ because acting in a fast way ‘cannot go against any of the parties’ involved, ‘whose interest can only be the fast resolution of the questions brought to the Court’.

Meanwhile, Catalan Government insists independence vote will take place in November

Slowly and ambiguously, the Catalan Government is carrying out steps towards the 9^th of November’s self-determination consultation vote, adapting each new move to the Constitutional Court’s temporary suspension and using the legal interpretation of this measure in its favour. The legal services of the Catalan Government believe that some minor measures and decisions regarding November’s non-binding vote can be adopted if they do not have a direct effect. Check out the new vote campaign video:

In addition, since the Constitutional Court’s temporary suspension does not mean that the vote is illegal (it is just a cautionary measure while the Court is reaching a definitive decision), Catalan authorities argue that some preparations have to be ready for being launched if the Court were to lift the suspension in the coming days and authorise November’s vote. Otherwise, the consultation vote could not take place on the scheduled day with enough democratic guarantees, despite it potentially having been declared legal by the Court.

More information on this issue:

Catalan leaders: Consultation vote will proceed (04.10.2014)

International media chides president Rajoy (03.10.2014)

Thousands protest against Constitutional Court independence consultation suspension (30.09.2014)

Constitutional Court temporarily suspends Catalonia’s self-determination consultation (29.09.2014)