High Court maintains Februrary elections despite Government plea
Court to issue a ruling before February 8, when election campaign will have already begun
BarcelonaThere will be an election on February 14 - at least for now. Catalonia' High Court has decided this Thursday to keep this election date as a precautionary measure and to suspend the Government's decree that postpones the elections to May 30. It has done so after hearing the allegations of the Generalitat and the Public Prosecutor's Office, as the court states in a note. Tomorrow, Friday, it will share its ruling with the reasons that have led it to its decision.
In any case, this is not a final ruling, since it has not yet ruled on the merits of the case and could yet agree with the Generalitat. In order to issue a ruling, the court will now open the usual procedure of the contentious-administrative proceedings, but it has shortened the deadlines for reasons of "urgency" with the idea of issuing a final resolution before February 8. It gives four working days, instead of eight, for the parties to submit their case. This means, in practice, that the court will rule on the postponement of the election once the campaign of 14 February has already started, which it will do next Thursday at midnight.
However, the fact that the court is maintaining precautionary measures today is already beginning to be a reliable indicator of what the court might end up doing: it has already heard all the parties - it has seen the reports that led the government to take this decision - and the implication of maintaining the date of the elections has consequences for both the executive and the parties. Expenses linked to the electoral process are beginning to be made, voting by mail can be requested and campaign events are taking place. In short, we have a campaign on our hands.
In view of this, the Government is considering all scenarios, since everything is now in the hands of the courts. The executive plans to vote on 14 February - on Tuesday it reactivated all the procedures in order to comply with the High Court resolution - but it also believes that there is still a possibility (depending on the incidence of the pandemic) that the court will agree with the administration and that the elections will be held on 30 May. It even contemplates the possibility, albeit to a lesser extent, that the court decides on an altogether different date, sometime between February 14 and May 30.
The Government's reaction: "Citizens are forced to choose between the right to health and the vote"
The High Court's communiqué caught the government by surprise, as it thought it would take at least 24 hours for the court to read the arguments of all parties, ponder and reach a decision. In fact, the news came shortly after noon, when the government had already organised a press conference to give its reactions to Catalan Minister of Foreign Affairs' bar from office by, precisely, the Catalan High Court. The head of Foreign Affairs was responsible for organising the electoral process and has been convicted (pending appeal) for serious disobedience over the Independence referendum when he was mayor of Agramunt.
Thus, the vice-president, Pere Aragonès, has taken advantage of his appearance to support Solé, but also to criticise the High Court's "irresponsibility" by maintaining elections on February 14: "Many citizens are forced to choose between the right to vote and the right to health". In the same line, the president of Parliament, Roger Torrent, has assured that it is "foolish" to maintain the "uncertainty" on whether the elections are suspended or not and has considered that the right to vote and the health of many people can be "put at risk".
On the other hand, the president of JxCat, Laura Borràs, has assured in press conference, that Catalunya suffers a permanent direct rule that will only be solved by gaining independence. "The next step will be to tell us who we have to vote for", Borràs ironised. The CUP, in the same line, has assured: "If the judges want to govern, they should run in the elections".
On the other hand, the reaction of other political parties, which had also endorsed the postponement, has been more cautious. Jèssica Albiach, of Catalunya en Comú, has limited herself to asking the High Court for speed because she believes that the possibility that the elections will be suspended with just four days to go would generate "uncertainty and disaffection", while the PP has asked for "respect" for the judicial decisions. Ciudadanos demanded the resignation of the minister in charge of the electoral process, after he was barred from office by the High Court.
The only party yet to speak is the Catalan Socialist Party. They are the only party that had objected to the postponement of the elections and will assess the High Court's decision this afternoon at six o'clock.
