Address by Roger Torrent, speaker of the Catalan Parliament, explaining his postponement of the parliamentary session for the investiture of Carles Puigdemont as Catalan president, 30/01/2018. Translated from the Catalan text posted on Twitter by @rogertorrent here.
I come before you after several days in which the Spanish state has shown one of its darkest sides with the decision by the Spanish government to commit a legal fraud and the decision of a Constitutional Court to urgently set conditions on the investiture of Carles Puigdemont that no one had asked for.
The Constitutional Court without any prior request is
instructing the Board of the Catalan Parliament how it has to interpret its own
regulations. An ad hoc political decision made by the entity that should be the
constitutional arbitrator. A compromise decision in order to not discredit the
Spanish government's legal fraud.
The Spanish government and the Constitutional Court are
trying to infringe the rights of millions of Catalans who went to vote on 21st December.
And we will not allow that.
We will not accept it being said that Catalans voted badly, for voting for who they wanted. We will not accept interference with a
democratic Parliament which has the right and duty to invest the president who
has the most support.
Neither the Spanish vice president nor the Constitutional
Court will decide who should be the president of Catalonia. It is up to the
democratically elected deputies to do this.
Proposing president Puigdemont as the candidate to be
invested as [new] president of Catalonia has been the result of the will expressed
by a majority of this chamber. And as long as this will is maintained, I will
not propose any other candidate for investiture.
President Carles Puigdemont has all the legitimacy to be a
candidate and has all the right. To defend this right I have personally
committed myself to guarantee his immunity, along with that of all the
deputies, in exercising their political rights in Parliament.
In this regard, I have asked the chamber's legal counsel to
present an appeal from this Parliament to the Constitutional Court's
resolution.
In response to the request of president Puigdemont to
guarantee his right to an investiture debate with guarantees, and to give time
for the appeal presented by the president himself, the parliamentary session
scheduled for today is postponed, but in no sense is it cancelled.
The session for the investiture of the candidate Carles
Puigdemont remains convoked and will be held once an effective investiture
debate without interference can be guaranteed. An investiture with real value
and that will take effect.
I am committed to generating the most favourable scenario to
ensure that the will of people expressed in the elections becomes reality. I
urge the Constitutional Court to resolve the appeals as quickly as possible to
undo the legal confusion it has created.
I know what my responsibility is and what my commitment is.
I have the duty to protect the sovereignty of this Parliament from
antidemocratic interference and attacks. I will not give an inch in the defence
of the democratic rights of the deputies of parliament, despite the threats.
I will go all the way to defend the rights of
president Puigdemont to offer himself to the investiture debate with full
guarantees.
All my energies will go to defending the institution,
defending the deputies, defending the voters, defending, indeed, the essence of
democracy. Because democracy cannot be suspended.
The majority will of the Catalan people cannot be suspended.
This Parliament will invest the candidate who has the majority support of the
chamber, not one who is decided in an office 600 kilometres away.
This Parliament, democratically voted, chosen by the public,
politically represents the people of Catalonia. And that deserves respect. The
people of Catalonia deserve respect.
