10 January 2020 will go down in the history books as a black day for democracy and Human Rights in Europe. It is indeed on this day that David Sassoli, as President of the European Parliament, ushers in a new era in which not only the voters, but also the judges of the member states will decide on the composition of the European Parliament. The crucial basic principle of representative democracy is thus abandoned.
As the European Court of Justice stated on 19 December 2019, Dr Oriol Junqueras was elected to the European Parliament as a Member of Parliament and has enjoyed parliamentary immunity since 2 July 2019. Nevertheless, Spain has also imprisoned him from 2 July 2019 until today and prevented him from carrying out his work as an elected MEP. In violation of international and Spanish law, the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced Oriol Junqueras at first and only instance to 13 years imprisonment on 14 October 2019 under trial conditions that were far from fair and impartial. Whoever reads the verdict will recognize with shudder that the principle of the rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights of the Spanish constitution was buried here and that from now on the use of fundamental rights in Spain may be punishable.
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/ferrajoli-critica-repressio-judici-suprem-pressions-espanyoles/
Spain should neither have continued to imprison the MEP nor should it have condemned him despite his immunity. Manuel Marchena, the presiding judge in the criminal case, has now argued that the Spanish Supreme Court has recently decided, in a new ruling on the ruling which he has authoritatively drafted, that this ruling, which was passed in the first and only instance, is final — a second instance is denied to Oriol Junqueras in violation of Human Rights — and that therefore Oriol Junqueras should not be allowed to hold public office. Therefore he could not take up his mandate.
On 10 January 2019, the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, expressed the legal opinion that the European Parliament is bound by the jurisprudence of national courts and that, as a result of the new decision of the Spanish Supreme Court, Oriol Junqueras' parliamentary status will cease to exist as of 3 January 2020. This will allow all national courts in the Member States of the European Union to prosecute an elected, politically unpopular MEP without prior waiver of his immunity by the European Parliament and to destroy the will of the electorate by means of a conviction. This is exactly the opposite of what the principle of parliamentary immunity is intended to achieve. The judiciary of post-democratic Spain has thus managed to set the European Union on a dangerous path, moving away from a crucial principle of democracy and from the will of the electorate, so that the European Parliament no longer appears to be a legitimate representation of all European voters, but rather a large number of Catalan voters have their rights as European citizens violated in a drastic way.
There is still hope that European courts will correct this historic error by the President of Parliament, David Sassoli. If they do not, however, perhaps 10 January 2020 will go down in history as the day when the disintegration of the democratic principle of the European Union began. It would be a pity for the Union. However, a federal union that abandoned the claim to the universality of Human Rights as well as the principle of democracy would no longer be justified in the long term.
But that is not all. Barcelona's election commission has declared the parliamentary seat of Catalan President Quim Torra vacant. Ferran Mascarell will now succeed him as deputy for Quim Torra. The Catalan Parliament, on the other hand, has already declared that it will not accept this measure, even though 'disobedience' is a criminal offence in Spain. In probably every other European state, politicians are free to use solidarity symbols that are not clearly linked to any party or political direction at any time. The use of the yellow ribbon, which does not represent any party, but only expresses solidarity with political prisoners, is a punishable offence according to the first instance opinion of a Spanish court, and the Electoral Commission uses a non-appealable judgment of a court of appeal to deprive a Member of his mandate. These are strange conditions in a country whose lack of the rule of law is apparent to anyone who does not close the eyes!
Even more fuel to the fire is the Spanish judge Pablo Llarena, who has asked the European Parliament to strip two Catalan MEPs, Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín, of their immunity as members of the European Parliament and is maintaining the European arrest warrants he issued against both of them despite their immunity.
How is a dialogue to be established when the Spanish judiciary continues to persecute prominent Catalan politicians for political reasons with a ruthless desire for revenge, accusing them of imaginary and fictitious crimes that would probably not be taken seriously by a court in any other state of the European Union? The 'deep state' of Spain, which still seems to be 'Franco country', is persecuting with all its might those Catalan politicians who have spoken out and are speaking out in favour of dialogue and against violence, and seems to be aiming to radicalise the conflict in this way and to provoke violent actions by certain groups on the Catalan side, to which Spain could then respond by re-establishing a dictatorship over Catalonia and using its military against the Catalans. At some point, the escalation of repression and violence for which the Spanish State is responsible will lead to counter-violence and the situation will increasingly slip away from the hands of political leaders if the legal persecution of blameless and honourable politicians is not finally stopped and a sincere dialogue begun. However, Spain still seems to be heading for a confrontation which will eventually break it unless it finally comes up with a better solution. Vae Hispaniae, vae Europae!