Judicial setback for Junts in Europe. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has rejected the appeal by Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín for having initially denied them their seats in 2019 – although in January 2020 the same court allowed them to access their seats as MEPs and the respective immunity – for not having personally complied with the Spanish Constitution at that time. CJEU has justified the decision of Antonio Tajani of vetoing his seat since his names did not appear on the list sent by the Central Electoral Board. The ruling frustrates Comín’s European future, since a ruling to the contrary would have served as an argument to recover his seat – suspended for the same reasons as four years ago and for which he has another appeal pending.
“The President of Parliament merely did what he was obliged to do: take note of the list of elected deputies notified by the Spanish authorities, which constituted for him a pre-existing situation arising from decisions that had been taken at the national level,” the court argued.
Although the appeal was lodged by Puigdemont and Comín, its rejection affects the latter, as he is the only neo-convergent candidate who is repeating in the European Parliament after being elected in the European elections last June. However, he was waiting to take up his seat because, as happened in 2019, the Central Electoral Board did not include his name on the list sent to the EU for not having appeared in Congress to abide by the Magna Carta – a decision that he had appealed.
The odds The prospects of regaining his seat are extremely complicated for Comín, as the current President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, had already indicated that she was waiting for this ruling to make a decision on the new appeal presented by the nationalist leader.
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