For the first time, judicial unanimity has been broken in a ruling that affects the Catalan separatist challenge. It was in the Constitutional Court, which yesterday rejected the appeal for amparo filed by Junqueras against the decision to maintain the provisional prison issued by the National Court. Nine magistrates demonstrated in favor of that rejection but three others, attached to the progressive sector - Juan Antonio Xiol Ríos, Fernando Valdés Dal-Ré and María Luisa Balaguer Callejón - disagreed with two votes against. Yes, the TC has ruled out overwhelmingly that Junqueras has violated his right to political participation, since his preventive detention adhered to the constitutional requirements of legal provision, legitimate purpose and proportionality. The risk of leakage and recidivism were more than evident. However, the internal division that has become evident throws disturbing conclusions.

The first of these abounds in the scourge of the politicization of Justice. With the renewal of the Judicial Power pending the unlocking by the recidivist route of the partisan distribution, the temptation to take positions is sharpened. It is not necessary to underline the unfortunate discredit that this behavior inflicts on Spanish Justice. But it is more embarrassing when it concerns a nuclear issue such as the defense of the territorial integrity of the State, which should create the highest consensus. For the rest, the guarantee does not require all the resources to be processed. The boast of condescension of the TC opens a gap and gives ammunition to separatism.

Because the Spanish judicial sphere is not an island: its decisions - and its private votes - have repercussions abroad that the legal strategists of separatism exploit to their advantage from the first minute of the process . In that sense, the discrepancy in the TC will be used to pressure the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which in December must rule on the parliamentary immunity that Junqueras and Puigdemont lawyers claim for their clients. And after the CJEU, Strasbourg awaits as the end station. The position already explained by the EU attorney general - in a non-binding but influential report - buys the separatist argument considering that the Supreme deprived Junqueras of his political rights when he was prevented from leaving prison to acquire the status of MEP . It was Eurocamara itself that prohibited Puigdemont from collecting the act due to its escape from Spanish Justice, and the current criterion establishes that immunity starts when the MEP status becomes effective when collecting the minutes. But now the CJEU could modify that criterion and set the point of origin of immunity at the time of mere election, which would unleash an institutional catastrophe and an unprecedented conflict between the EU and Spain.

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Ediorial The TC must maintain unanimity

Thoroughly a sensible sentence

Tribune Naked Catalan delegations