Laura Borràs i Castanyer
Presidenta
Dear,
Once again as President of the Parliament of Catalonia, I feel obligated to report the situation of
injustice that the Chamber I preside is experiencing.
On the fourteenth of February 2021 people of Catalonia were called to vote in the Catalan elections,
elections with the aim to form the Parliament of Catalonia. We came from an anomalous legislature
where President of the Generalitat, Mr. Quim Torra, was banned from public office by the Spanish
justice for having hung a banner at the Palau of the Generalitat asking for the freedom of political
prisoners and the return of exiles, politicians imprisoned and exiled following the self-determination
referendum held in Catalonia on the first of October 2017.
The fourteenth of February, the political party Junts per Catalunya, had incorporated Mr. Lluís Puig
on its ballot paper. Mr Puig was the minister of culture at the time the self-determination referendum
and is currently in exile.
Mr. Lluís Puig is a member of this Parliament because the Catalan citizens wanted it that way. Since
he is in exile he can’t take part in a normal way in parliamentary life. Until now he participated in
voting using the vote delegation.
But the Spanish justice has warned the Parliament’s Bureau that Mr. Puig cannot delegate his vote.
And that implies vulnerating democracy, because he's a member of this Parliament because Catalan
citizens wanted that way.
Nevertheless, the Parliament’s Bureau continues to defend this delegation of vote, because we must
preserve the right of democratic participation and the right of representation of voters. But there are
far-right Parliament groups that have reacted by filing a complaint for prevarication. And they did it
against the President of the Parliament, not against the Parliament’s Bureau.
In this way, the case of Lluís Puig puts the democratic quality of Spanish institutions at stake.
Yours faithfully,
Palau del Parlament, 28
th
July 2022