The Constitutional Court has already the word. The plenary of the court of warranties has decided to inadmissible unanimously the objection of the Government against the reprobation of the King, passed in the Parliament of Catalonia. An initiative that took The Moncloa despite the fact that the State Council, the main advisory body to the Executive, concluded that there was no legal basis for the appeal. Even so, the team of Pedro Sánchez announced that it was taking this action because, as alleged, that a resolution of the regional Chamber entailed the danger of being a sort of reboot of the procés.
In an order dated Wednesday, the judges explain that they have decided to accept to leave to appeal against two of the paragraphs of the resolution adopted by the Parliament on October 11, 2018. The first of them reads: “[The Parliament of Catalonia, in defence of the Catalan institutions Jojobet and freedoms], Rejects and condemns the positioning of King Felipe VI, his intervention in the conflict Catalan and his justification of violence by law-enforcement bodies on October 1, 2017″. The second says: “[The House reaffirms the commitment to the values of republicans and advocates for the abolition of an institution expires, and anti-democratic as the monarchy”.
The State Council, as well as several jurists consulted by THE COUNTRY, argues that the opinion of the Parliament cannot be declared unconstitutional since it is a simple declaratory judgment, without legal significance. “It is challenging a political statement. It is as if it asks to override a banner,” said Fernando Álvarez-Ossorio, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Seville.
The Government understands that, in contrast, is “a new attempt, like previous ones, the Parliament of initiating a one-sided process that leads to the proclamation of a hypothetical republic, in contravention of clearly the Constitution and is a breach of the latter doctrine issued by the Constitutional Court.”
The Constitutional need to decide now. For the moment, the resolution of the Parliament remains in force, as the Government did not asked the court to suspend until the full ruling on the substance of the matter. The Catalan Chamber has a term of 20 days to formulate allegations.
