Catalan Supreme Court to proceed with case against Forcadell

The President of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, will be investigated by Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) for perversion of justice and disobedience. This Tuesday, the Court notified Forcadell that it has admitted the complaint filed by Catalonia’s Public Prosecutor, José María Romero de Tejada, against her for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote last July. In the claim presented last Wednesday, de Tejada stated that Forcadell ‘despised and opposed the Spanish Constitution’ and that she ‘openly disobeyed the authority’ by ignoring the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) warnings. From now on, the TSJC will be responsible for these proceedings, together with those for the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014, which have to resolve whether former Catalan President, Artur Mas and former ministers Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau are liable for ignoring the TC’s resolutions and allowing the 9-N to take place.

The 30-page complaint, signed by José María Romero de Tejada, was filed on the 19^th of October after an order to do so was received from the Spanish Public Prosecutor, Consuelo Madrigal. The text of the complaint does not close the door to a further extension of the case against other figures, such as the spokespersons of the cross-party coalition JxSí and the pro-independence radical-left CUP, Jordi Turull and Anna Gabriel, respectively, as they requested the entering of this vote in the agenda.

The President of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, reiterated this Tuesday that she ‘will always defend that in the Parliament we must be able to speak of everything that affects the citizens’.

Wide support for Forcadell
Numerous politicians expressed this Tuesday their support for Carme Forcadell. The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, stated that the Parliament ‘is a reflection of the will of the citizens’ and added that ‘its president guarantees its protection and respect’.

For their part, the Catalan Vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, stressed that ‘only elected representatives choose or dismiss the President of the Parliament’ and the deputy spokesman of the radical-left CUP, Albert Botran, said that Forcadell is ‘not alone’ and can count upon the support of his party.

C’s and PP asked Forcadell ‘to step down’
The Spanish Unionist party Ciutadans (C’s) and the Catalan People’s Party (PPC) believe that the President of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, cannot continue in charge after the TSJC notification of the acceptance of the complaint for disobedience and perversion of justice. ‘In deference and respect’ to the institution and ‘for dignity’, the popular spokesman, Enric Millo, believes that Forcadell should ‘step down’. ‘The presidency cannot be held by a person who has taken such decisions and is under judicial investigation for disobeying the main rule of cohabitation’, he commented. Furthermore, Millo asked Forcadell to undertake ‘reflection’ on whether the politician has ‘sufficient reasons’ to leave office. ‘We should not be surprised [by the facts] when things are done badly’ Millo reaffirmed.

C’s leader, Inés Arrimadas, expressed herself in similar terms: ‘She cannot be President of the Parliament disobeying democratic legality and justice’. In this vein, Arrimadas stated that ‘no one can be surprised’ by the fact that ‘in any democratic country to bypass the law has consequences’.

JxSí and CSQP criticised the ‘judicialisation of politics’
On the other hand, JxSí deputy spokesman, Roger Torrent, believes that Forcadell’s prosecution ‘follows the shame and absurdity of the judicialisation of politics, persecution of political debates and ideas, and threatens democracy’. In his opinion, the judicialisation of politics transcends independence: ‘Any Democrat or tribunal should reject attacks and persecution of the debate and the democracy and reject the anti-democratic attitude of the Government and the Courts, the executive arm’. In this sense, Torrent warned that the Catalan politicians will not ‘withdraw’, but will continue with ‘the roadmap and the democratic mandate’.

The deputy spokesman of the left-wing party ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ (CSQP), Albano Dante Fachin, warns of a ‘drift toward the judicialisation of politics’ and stressed that this judicial fight is a ‘deeper battle for freedom’ that surpasses the limits of independence. ‘We are concerned about the drift’, the politician added, while questioning the legitimacy of the Government. In this vein, Dante Fachin once again warned that judicialisation does not provide solutions to the political debate and defended that his group, despite voting against the conclusions of the commission studying the constitutional process, is in favour of political debate.