Carles Puigdemont, JxCAT candidate, will continue to flee outside Spain and will vote remotely on June 10 during the constitution of the Parliament’s Board. This is what the newspaper El Confidencial publishes after speaking with sources familiar with the negotiations between the PSC and the pro-independence parties. This is particularly unusual given that Puigdemont is in Brussels, fleeing justice. Although the amnesty law will be definitively approved by Congress on May 30, ten days before.
Lluís Puig, also a JxCAT deputy, is in a similar position. Both fled and the Constitutional Court ruled that Puig cannot vote. However, this opinion was ignored in the previous legislature with the connivance of the parliamentary groups.
A parallel case is that of Ruben Wagensberg, an ERC deputy who escaped in Geneva, Swiss. He wants to avoid facing terrorism charges related to the Tsunami Democràtic case. Wagensberg voted remotely in Parliament, covered by a questionable medical leave that ERC justifies due to stress.
All these deputies will be able to vote thanks to the constitution of the Age Board, which organizes the election of the members of the future Parliament Board. Also of the new president of the Catalan Chamber. According to the Parliament’s regulations, the voting of the Board, which determines the new legislature, is supervised by the Age Board.
The Age Table will be chaired by three members: the oldest deputy and the two youngest. Due to the composition of the Catalan chamber, JxCAT and, therefore, the independence movement, will have a majority. The president will be Agustí Colomines, a 66-year-old historian and member of JxCAT. While the other two members will be Ennatu Domingo, a writer from 1996 also from JxCAT, and Alberto Tarradas, from VOX, also born in 1996. This majority will allow deputies like Puigdemont to vote as if their situation were normal.
However, this victory would be short-lived. The PSC aspires to preside over the Parliament so that Salvador Illa is president over Puigdemont, who wants the position. In a Table chaired by the PSC, it is possible that the escaped Puigdemont will vote on the constitution, but not on his own investiture. Even if he returns to Catalonia, as he promised during the campaign and at the moment he does not dare to fulfill. The same would apply to Lluís Puig, leaving JxCAT with two fewer votes in the investiture.
Furthermore, the PP achieved 15 deputies in the last Catalan elections, that is, a position on the Parliamentary Board in June. This will make it difficult for pro-independence deputies in an irregular situation to vote, according to parliamentary sources.