Spain’s Constitutional Court attempts to block Catalan premier’s investiture
By
Alejandro López
29 January 2018
In an unprecedented action, Spain’s Constitutional Court has given itself the power to decide who can and cannot be elected as regional premier of Catalonia.
It is the latest anti-democratic action aimed at preventing the formation of a secessionist government in Catalonia following the narrow victory of the Catalan nationalists in the December regional election.
Last week, the Popular Party (PP) government petitioned the court to suspend the candidacy of ousted regional premier Carles Puigdemont, leader of Together for Catalonia (JxCat), ahead of a debate on his appointment in the Catalan Parliament tomorrow.
Puigdemont fled to Brussels last October after declaring Catalan independence. In response, the PP government invoked Article 155 of the Constitution, dissolving the Catalan government and imposing snap elections. Fearing sedition and rebellion charges that led to the imprisonment of three deputies, including vice-premier Oriol Junqueras (Republican Left of Catalonia, ERC), Puigdemont has remained in self-imposed exile in Belgium.
The PP government’s latest actions were fervently defended by the pro-Socialist Party (PSOE), El País, in three editorials, one of which declared, “The Spanish government, in the name of democracy and the Constitution, and in representation of the people, must exhaust all political and legal means within its reach in order to avoid an investiture that would see the institutions of self-government in the region facing a new conflict with the state.”
In the end, the Constitutional Court baulked at accepting the government’s pre-emptive attack on Puigdemont’s candidacy. But it ruled that he cannot be invested via a…