Supreme Court comes first

The pro-independence parties, JxCat and ERC, did not continue their talks yesterday, say party sources. Nor was JxCat’s proposal to amend the Presidency Law to allow the remote swearing in of Carles Puigdemont included on the parliamentary agenda. From the start, ERC did not seem convinced by the idea of the amendment, which is why on Friday Puigdemont’s JxCat candidacy registered it to put pressure on the republicans.

A date that is on ERC’s calendar is Monday, when the party’s secretary general, Marta Rovira, is summoned to testify in the Supreme Court. In the long run, however, what concerns ERC most is avoiding new elections and forming a government as soon as possible.

In the meantime, various members of the independence movement will appear in court, beginning with the CUP party’s Mireia Boya on Wednesday. On Monday, Rovira, Marta Pascal, Artur Mas and Neus Lloveras will appear, while two days later it will be the turn of Anna Gabriel. Yet, the possibility of more detentions is something that worries the pro-independence parties, with the swearing in situation far from resolved.

In a written interview with the Tele 5 channel, from prison, ERC head Oriol Junqueras questioned whether governing the country from Brussels would be an “effective presidency”. The spokesman for ERC, Sergi Sabrià, insisted that the party was looking for a “global agreement” with JxCat. And, part of this agreement would be the decision whether to go ahead with the amendment to make the remote swearing in of Puigdemont possible. As for JxCat, it reiterated that Puigdemont must be a president that is “legitimate and operative.”