PRO-independence groups in the new Catalan Parliament have fallen out for the first time over how to deal with a court order to suspend six jailed and exiled MPs, including deposed and exiled president Carles Puigdemont.
Agreement had been reached between Together for Catalonia (JxCat) and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) to temporarily replace the affected members with fellow MPs who would vote on their behalf.
However, an insider told The National: “Speaker [Roger] Torrent ignored the agreement at the highest level between JxCat and ERC for the protection of the rights as MP of president Puigdemont, since there is no legal basis for suspending him as MP.”
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JxCat, led by Puigdemont, accused the ERC’s Torrent of breaking the agreement between the parties.
“We regret that parliament speaker Torrent broke the agreement,” said spokesperson Eduard Pujol:
However, sources close to the speaker denied there was any agreement, as did ERC spokesman Sergi Sabrià, who accused JxCat of lying: “The main difference was within a group [JxCat], whose members have even voted differently in the bureau, we cannot solve their internal problems.”
Our insider said: “We regret and do not understand the paradox of ERC obsessively wanting to suspend president Puigdemont’s rights as MP, considering that the absolute majority of the chamber, ERC included, voted to elect him at the very first chance available.”
Torrent suspended the full sitting of the parliament, with both sides saying they would work to resolve their differences.
Meanwhile, a group of more than 60 academics, journalists and public figures have jointly signed a manifesto calling for the release of Catalonia’s political prisoners.
They called for an “end of the preventive jail of the Catalan independentists”, and expressed concern that their situation had been prolonged indefinitely.
It said the nine had been in custody for between four and nine months and, despite their being transferred from Madrid, closer to their families in Barcelona, visits and phone calls remained “restricted”. The group added: “We believe that, while there is no conviction, there are other less painful ways of limiting the movements until the trial is done.”
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