The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has forwarded this Wednesday the case of Clara Ponsatí, and her request for amparo, to the Legal Affairs Committee, therefore ruling out that it is an emergency case and starting an ordinary process. The former Catalan minister, who returned to Spain for the first time on Tuesday, was arrested in Barcelona and released a few hours later, has returned to Brussels this Wednesday to participate in the plenary session of the European Parliament, denounce her situation and demand that the institution protect, protect and political support. Ponsatí has ??achieved some media attention and the support of some colleagues, but not that there is an in-depth discussion in plenary or that Metsola activated the emergency mechanisms contemplated in the chamber’s regulations.
“Yesterday I was illegally detained and we asked the president to defend immunity and I have not received any response, and now the only thing the president does is bureaucratically pass the case on to the Legal Affairs Commission,” she lamented, accusing Metsola of “failing in their obligations to protect my immunity to the independence of this chamber” in the face of a fact that he has described as “unprecedented in the history of the institution”. The Maltese woman, visibly annoyed, replied that she had probably not heard her words at the beginning of the session and urged her to listen again.
Article 8 of the Internal Regulations states that “as a matter of urgency, when a deputy is detained or sees his freedom of movement restricted in a manifest violation of his privileges and immunities, the president, after consulting the president and the rapporteur of the competent committee, may adopt the initiative to confirm the privileges and immunities of the affected deputy. The president will notify this initiative to the competent committee and inform Parliament”. Instead, Metsola, given that Ponsatí is free and has been able to return to Belgium without any impediment, and also does not face prison sentences for the case that is open to him in our country, has preferred to resort to the ordinary process, passing the ball to the Legal Affairs Committee, the same one that decided months ago to grant the request requested from Madrid and chaired by Deputy Adrián Vázquez, from Ciudadanos.
Ponsatí and the pro-independence leaders have shown their discomfort with the Maltese president, whom they reproach for putting herself in profile. The affected person herself said it upon her arrival, surrounded by supporters: “we are waiting for her to rule. Mrs. Metsola was immediately informed of the arrest and we asked her to act to defend immunity, but so far she has not done so. And that is a very unfortunate situation that leaves Parliament the risk,” he stated. “She has been arrested despite having her rights intact, we demand that she defend the immunity of the deputy and demand that the Spanish justice system abide by European legality and abandon judicial Brexit,” her colleague Diana Riba snapped at the beginning of the session. appealing directly to Article 8 mentioned, although without success.
She has been one of the few voices that have been heard, along with the popular Dolors Montserrat and Jordi Cañas, who have warned her that they will not allow the institution to become muddy and reminded her that they cannot act here with the same immunity as in the Parliament of Catalonia.
After being released, Ponsatí decided to return to Brussels today. Asked about what happened and if she will appear on the 24th in Madrid before the Supreme Court, the teacher and former counselor has left everything up in the air, without confirming or denying, mocking Llarena’s request. The MEP was taken by the Mossos because she decided to ignore the judge’s claim. And she in that limbo she has been delighted. “Yesterday I returned to Barcelona and after a very short time they arrested me and put me in court. I spent the rest of the afternoon and the night until I was finally released. In the middle of the street, everyone has seen that it was just an MEP who the only thing she could do was walk around. An illegal detention. There was a judge in Madrid who really wanted to talk to me, I didn’t particularly want to talk to the judge and we’ll talk about what will happen in a few days”, he said. saying.
The situation could be branded as anomalous, but after everything that has happened in the last six years, it is very difficult to establish what is normal. On Wednesday afternoon, Ponsatí’s team sent an email in a dramatic tone to all the deputies, which began by saying: “If you read this email it is because I have been arrested.” However, the more than 700 colleagues have been able to see it hours later completely free.
“We are going to prevent Mrs. Ponsatí from turning the European Parliament into a circus and repeating the Barcelona show”, said the deputy for Citizens Jordi Cañas, who added that the “fleeing parliamentarian does have a safe-conduct, which is not the accreditation of the Parliament”, in reference to what Ponsatí exhibited in the streets of Barcelona and taught the Police to link his arrest to immunity: “but Pedro Sánchez gave it to him so that he would not go to prison, a suit tailored to the Penal Code “.
The brawl lasted just a few minutes. After the words of Ponsatí, who asked that a point be added to the agenda, and the response of the other three Catalan deputies, Metsola settled it suddenly.
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