• Politics.The Electoral Board prohibits compliance with the Constitution "with loyalty to 1-O"
  • Constitutional Court. Citizens resort to TC the formulas of compliance with the Constitution of the independentista deputies
  • Politics: The PP presents a proposal to ban the 'illegal' oaths of the independentistas
  • Congress.Batet uses the Constitutional Court ruling that allowed the "legal imperative"

Meritxell Batet, president of the Congress of Deputies who will repeat the mandate in the new Legislature, faces again today the dilemma of endorsing or not the imaginative formulas of compliance with the Constitution of the elected deputies of the independence forces, ERC and JxCat; of the abertzale EH Bildu formation and, without a doubt, of the two anti-system parliamentarians of the CUP.

This is a question that has been controversial for years and with the flourishing of secessionist demands has come to life. The debate about the permissiveness that should be used before the compliance formulas of the Magna Carta that border the legality led the constitution of the Cortes after the elections of April 28 and today, after the elections of 10-N, will mark again the premiere of the new Legislature.

Regulation and Constitution

Swearing or promising to abide by the Constitution is a requirement established in article 20 of the Congress Regulation and in 12 of the mandatory Senate Regulation to improve the status of deputy or senator. This is a requirement contained in both regulations and added to those included in article 70 of the Constitution itself, according to which the requirements to acquire the status of deputy are established by the validity of the minutes and credentials and the absence of incompatibilities

The Regulation of the Congress dates from 1982 and a year later the Constitutional Court established by means of a judgment that the aforementioned compliance requirement did not violate the rights of ideological freedom and equality, but it does imply the commitment to perform the position in accordance with the precepts of the Magna Carta

The act of compliance is individual. The elect are called one by one to lend it to the Plenary of the Chamber. The Presidency of the Congress is responsible for ensuring its correct application.

The 1989 rifirrafe

In 1989, the socialist Felix Pons decided to declare invalid the formulas of compliance used by three elected Herri Batasuna who put before the regulatory promise the expression "by legal imperative".

In 1991, the Constitutional Court established in another judgment that the aforementioned coletilla was not an obstacle to fulfilling the obligation to comply.

The sentence indicated that the limit to take the oath or promise as good must be that it does not "denaturalize or empty the content itself by means of formulas that suppose a fraud to the law or deprive the compliance itself in a meaningful way".

Ultimately, the TC insists that the essential thing is that compliance with the Magna Carta is "unconditional and full."

May's controversy

Last May, in the constitution of the Cortes after the elections of 28-A, the controversy arose in all its splendor as a result of the observance of the then preventive prisoners of the process and their colleagues from ERC and JxCat.

The president of the Chamber, Meritxell Batet, considered all the formulas used to be good even though the noise of the Hemicycle prevented her from hearing them and many of them touched, if they did not exceed, the limits of legality. On that occasion it was heard to abide by the Magna Carta "for the Catalan Republic" or "for political prisoners and exiles."

The interpretations of the jurists were varied, however, the majority pointed out that expressions such as those used by Josep Rull, Jordi Turull and Jordi Sànchez who complied "with loyalty to the 1-O mandate", referring to the illegal secessionist consultation, or The formula used by Raül Romeva assuming the Magna Carta "until the proclamation of the Catalan Republic" could violate the requirement of unconditional compliance.

Others on the contrary, such as the one used by Oriol Junqueras, who complied "from the republican commitment, as a political prisoner and by legal imperative", could be considered valid. In any case, there were opinions for all tastes that, no doubt, today, will be heard again.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • constitutional Court
  • Meritxell Batet
  • ERC
  • Josep Rull
  • Raül Romeva
  • Oriol Junqueras
  • Jordi Turull
  • Congress of Deputies
  • Cup
  • Bildu
  • Politics
  • General elections

Spain Pedro Sánchez fails in his plebiscite and Vox shoots at the expense of Citizens

General elections 2019Elections: Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias reach a government agreement with the leader of Podemos as vice president

SpainEH Bildu opens to the CUP the doors of the Congress and its candidates are recorded making fun of the King and the Constitution