- Politics.The PNV opposes that Laura Borràs be investigated for corruption and United Podemos abstains
- Procés.Carles Puigdemont mobilizes his paintings to make Laura Borràs a martyr of separatism
- Courts.Laura Borràs broke the law by dividing contracts when she was in charge at the Catalan Institution of Lletres
The Congress of Deputies has definitively authorized the Supreme Court to investigate JxCat's parliamentary spokesperson, Laura Borràs, for four possible corruption offenses for the alleged award of fractional contracts to favor a close friend of hers during her time as director of the Institution of Catalan Letters (2013-2017). Offenses could carry a maximum of 15 years in prison.
As Borràs has the status of deputy, in order for the Supreme Court to proceed against her, she needed Congress to approve the request to lift her immunity, which has been granted this Thursday with the votes in favor of the PSOE, PP, Vox, United We Can and Citizens. JxCat and the PNV have voted against. With only 312 deputies participating in the vote, the result was 293 yes, 14 no, and 5 abstentions.
The party that has rectified its position in recent hours has been United We Can, which when the case was studied in the Commission of the Statute of the Deputy stood out with an abstention on allowing the judicial investigation, despite being born claiming the fight against the corruption. A week later, he voted in favor in plenary.
The news has been essentially in the behavior of the Catalan independence sector, which has abandoned Borràs to his fate, refusing to participate in the vote for the petition and avoiding giving an image of unity of action in Congress, with the Catalan elections on the horizon of fall.
The excuse that ERC and the CUP have given for not voting is that this is an open case against her for political reasons, for her role as an independentista leader and a person very close to Carles Puigdemont. However, at the same time, both formations have avoided portraying themselves and having to position themselves against investigating an alleged corruption case.
In this way, although they have taken the floor during the parliamentary debate to reject the cause, ERC and the CUP have later left it alone in the voting, just as EH Bildu and the BNG have done , excusing themselves that with the majority that the big parties their votes would not have changed the result either.
"To press the button of the yes, the no or the abstention is to legitimize it; to participate is to legitimize it and we do not want to legitimize it or recognize it as such", explained Gabriel Rufián, who considers the Supreme Court "partial" and "political" and who dismisses the Open procedure of "flawed", "toxic" and "unfair".
When leaving the debate on the petition, which has had the condition of secrecy and therefore has not been public, Borràs has presented himself as a victim of the system due to his independence policy status. The JxCat spokeswoman has indicated that his rights will be "run over" in conscience "by those who believe that the" unity of Spain "must be imposed" by any means ".
"Putting the homeland before democracy involves these tolls and I hope that your conscience resists it," he said of those who vote in favor of the petition in a statement to the press.
Cross reproaches between JxCat and ERC
Without citing ERC and the CUP, Borràs has reproached them for their attitude. "Repression is fought and is not allowed to win due to failure of the rival even if the fight is lost beforehand. Doing the right thing can never, never, never be irrelevant," he stressed. Hence, in contrast, he wanted to applaud and recognize those who have voted against having "preserved the democratic spirit."
Later, Rufián has defended himself from the criticism in another press appearance, stressing that "nothing" of what happened before, during and after "depends on the ERC" and has rejected as "Unfair" that JxCat reproaches himself for not wanting to vote against. Thus, the republican spokesman has warned that the "unity" of separatism has been maintained by the ERC, CUP and EH Bildu and that, instead, "there is a part" that has not done so, transferring the entire party to Puigdemont and Torra responsibility.
Rufián has been very upset because, as he explained, they had agreed "20 days ago" that none of the parties participated in the vote so as not to "legitimize it", but that JxCat had finally changed his mind and, with it, had broken the Unit. In this sense, Rufián has made it clear that from ERC they had encouraged Borràs to resign the seat. A "gesture" to avoid having to be investigated by the Supreme Court for losing the assessment. Rufián has presented this outcome as "a meeting point between one party and the other".
The ERC spokesman in Congress has shown his party's discomfort with projecting a lukewarm image in the fight against corruption. Rufián has argued that "there should be no shadow of doubt in the face of corruption or irregularities in independence" and has stressed that they can not be "more lax with those inside than with those outside" in this type of circumstances.
With all this, and in the face of cross-accusations between separatist parties while looking askance at the Catalan elections in a few months, Rufián has rejected that JxCat or others can "give lessons" of what it means to be independent and has warned that "blame ERC "of what is happening with Borràs is" an insult to the collective intelligence ".
Split contracts for a friend
The Supreme Court has opened an investigation since last December against the JxCat parliamentary spokesperson who is accused, during the period in which he directed the Institution of Catalan Letters (2013-2017), alleged irregular awards to a close friend of his, Isaías Herrero , through 18 minor contracts for a total of 259,863 euros.
In fact, the Prosecutor General's Office considers that Isaías Herrero even participated in the preparation of many of those contracting files to adapt the concepts and the appropriate amounts to pass the filters.
Among the indications against Borràs, in addition to witness statements, there are crossed emails between the JxCat deputy and others investigated, as well as telephone conversations intercepted in the framework of said procedure.
In order to judge Borràs who, as a deputy has immunity, it was necessary for Congress to accept the request sent by the high court, something that has been granted today.
The charges that the deputy faces can carry penalties of up to 15 years in prison for prevarication, fraud, embezzlement and documentary falsification.
As of this moment, the president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet, has a period of eight days to transfer the decision to the Supreme. The court for its part will have to keep the Chamber informed of how many orders and sentences it issues in relation to Borràs who, for the moment, does not lose the status of deputy or the corresponding rights and duties. She would only cease to enjoy them at the time a firm indictment was issued and, in addition, she would provisionally enter prison. The loss would be final in the event of a final conviction.
Puigdemont and Torra set her up as a martyr
Carles Puigdemont and Quim Torra have been preparing the ground for days to present Borràs as the new victim of the "repression" to avoid any responsibility for the facts under investigation and to cover up the ultimate cause of their investigation. Last Saturday, EL MUNDO published how the environment of the former Catalan president, who had fled from Belgium, had prepared an internal argument to make Borràs a new martyr and in which he urged to defend her for being "faithful to Catalonia and the objective of the independence". Among other arguments, the allegedly incriminating emails would be "manipulated" material. In this line the President of the Generalitat has expressed himself. Torra has stated that "no independentista will ever have a fair trial in Spain." "Among other reasons, that is why we are pro-independence, out of the desire for a just society that is respectful of fundamental rights," he wrote on Twitter.
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Challenge of independence We can demand from the TC, together with independence and nationalists, the "immediate freedom" of the 'Jordis'
'Procés'Carles Puigdemont mobilizes his paintings to turn Laura Borràs into a martyr of separatism
PoliticsThe PNV opposes that Laura Borràs be investigated for corruption and United We can abstain
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