A POLISH lawyer has said the jailed Catalan
leader Oriol Junqueras has the right to be an MEP after Spain stopped him taking his seat following the European elections in May.
Maciej Szpunar, advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), said yesterday that Spain’s Supreme Court could not prevent the leader of the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC) from taking up his seat.
In a tweet, Junqueras, who was sentenced to 13 years for his role in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, welcomed the legal assessment, saying: “With humility, firmness … and courage, we start a historical path! We win the freedom!”
The news was also welcomed by exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, also elected as an MEP along with fellow exile and former minister Toni Comin.
Puigdemont tweeted: “This shows another very serious injustice of what is a victim @junqueras. They have violated their rights and those of their voters. Oriol should be sitting at @Europarl_EN, like @toni_comin and myself, because they voted for more than two million people.”
His defence team sources said if this is upheld in the final ECJ decision, it would also have to apply to the two exiled politicians who should be able to assume their seats.
READ MORE: Catalonia: Judges dismiss delay call from Oriol Junqueras
The assessment from Szpunar is not binding, although it does carry a lot of weight. A final decision will be taken by the Luxembourg court in the coming months.
In his opinion, “only voters” can decide who becomes an MEP and it would be up to the European Parliament to decide if Junqueras should be allowed immunity.
Spanish Supreme Court judge Manuel Marchena stopped Junqueras from taking up his MEP post on July 2 because he had not complied with the formality of swearing an oath to the Spanish constitution – which the judge himself had prevented.
Marchena filed a question to the European institution to clarify when Junqueras’s immunity began.
Szpunar said: “The acquisition of the parliamentary mandate of European MEPs results solely from voting by voters and cannot be subordinated to the further compliance of any formality.
“A person who has been officially proclaimed elected to the European Parliament by the competent authority of the member state in which this election took place acquires, solely for this fact and from that moment on, the condition of a member of Parliament, regardless of any further formality that is obligated to complete.”
SNP MEP Alyn Smith welcomed the advocate’s opinion on Twitter: “This is an important and very welcome development. While not the final ruling it does move us a step closer to getting @junqueras his rights and privileges as MEP properly reinstated. Dialogue is the only solution, not locking up democrats.”
Meanwhile, the horse-trading by Spain’s Socialist leader and acting prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, after an inconclusive general election result yesterday appeared to be paying off when he and the leader of the left-wing Podemos said they had reached an agreement to form a coalition government.
READ MORE: Spain faces more uncertainty after inconclusive election
Sanchez and Pablo Iglesias announced the agreement as media reported the latter had been appointed vice-president – a stumbling block after the last poll which led to Sunday’s snap election.
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