12:58 h
Feijóo asks Von der Leyen for “European help to control immigration”
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has called on Wednesday for “European help to control immigration”. The appeal by the leader of the opposition has taken place during a meeting of the European PP that is being held in Cascais (Portugal) and which is attended by the president of the Commission, the German Ursula von der Leyen, with whom he said he had met privately to discuss the situation in the Canary Islands.
In a brief speech to representatives of the PP from other EU countries, Feijóo said he was “concerned about the increase in illegal immigrants in Spain in recent years, and especially recently.” “The Spanish Government is very late,” he lamented, accusing it of “postponing” the debate on migrant minors, which he himself has ignored.
The PP president has assured that “taking different measures in Spain to those taken in other countries that have had successful results, can and does lead to a call effect” of which he has “warned” his colleagues. The PP leader has not mentioned those countries or the measures they have implemented to stop migratory flows. Feijóo, who has shown a “limited solidarity” of the communities governed by the PP to the distribution of minors demanded by the Canary Islands and Ceuta, has called on Wednesday for “a shared response” from the entire EU and an “equitable distribution of responsibility”.
At the start of his speech, Feijóo said that “the extreme left and the extreme right are two sides of the same coin” and that “there are supposedly moderate politicians who use this feedback to their advantage, thinking that it gives them a short-term advantage.”
Inform Aitor Riveiro
12:14 h
Judges for Democracy defend the impartiality of the Constitutional Court after Feijóo’s criticism
The association Judges for Democracy (JJpD) has rejected criticism of the impartiality of the Constitutional Court (TC) and has stated that the court “does not respond to pressure from anyone.” In a statement released on Wednesday, JJpD has asked politicians for “moderation,” pointing out that attacks on judges “only contribute to delegitimizing a crucial function in the rule of law.”
The leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, questioned the impartiality of the court of guarantees on Tuesday. “We have difficulties accepting the impartiality of the Constitutional Court,” he said during an interview on Onda Cero.
The Judges’ Association has stressed that the Constitutional Court is the “cornerstone in the vault of the Rule of Law” and that it is subject only to the Constitution and its own organic law. “It does not respond to pressure from anyone. No one can give instructions to the magistrates, who cannot be dismissed, sanctioned or harmed for the exercise of their jurisdictional work,” it insisted in a statement on Wednesday. “It is essential that political representatives show moderation and coherence in respecting the institutions, since the Constitutional Court is the loyal guarantor of our Constitution and of the fundamental rights of citizens,” it reiterated.
Information of Europa Press
12:02 h
Trias criticises the judiciary for “Francoist tics” and playing politics with the amnesty
The former mayor of Barcelona and leader of JxCat in the Catalan capital’s City Council, Xavier Trias, has attacked part of the Spanish judiciary, accusing it of having “a very hard-line ideological approach” and “Francoist tendencies”. According to Trias, these are manifested in its desire to “play politics” with the amnesty.
In an interview with EFE on the occasion of his farewell to Barcelona City Council, Trias said that the State “needs to finish” the process that began during the Transition. “We have a very serious pending issue, which is the situation of the judiciary in Spain. It is not new, it is a long time ago. What is happening now is that they are playing politics,” he said.
For Trias, it was “obvious” that the national police officers who participated in the charges of 1-O would be amnestied once the law was approved. However, he has stressed that “what was not evident is that the others would not be amnestied”, in reference to the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont. He has denounced that part of the judiciary “uses different measures” when applying the law and that they have “tremendous attitudes” typical of “extreme parties”. According to him, these judges act as “defenders of the concept of ‘everything for the country’”.
Information of EFE
11:31 a.m.
The Catalan TSJ amnesties a municipal secretary who committed malfeasance to fine a protest against the prisoners of the independence process
The appeals section of the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), the first court in Spain to apply the amnesty law, has exonerated this Wednesday two other separatists convicted of different crimes in the context of the procés.
One of the amnestied cases is that of the municipal secretary of Hostalric (Girona), who was sentenced to nine years of disqualification for prevarication for having promoted without reason a fine, based on the ‘gag law’, against a group of people who wanted to tear down yellow ribbons hung in the town in support of the prisoners of the independence process. A young man sentenced to four years in prison for bringing a “chemical cocktail” to a protest against the Council of Ministers held in Barcelona in December 2018 has also been exonerated.
With its decisions in recent days, the appeals section of the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJC has granted amnesty to a total of 20 people, while it has cancelled the criminal records of another twelve who were already acquitted in the first instance but who some prosecution sought to be convicted.
In addition to the 46 police officers investigated for the charges of 1-O who have been amnestied, there are now 66 beneficiaries of the amnesty of the 486 estimated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. On the other hand, the Supreme Court refused to exonerate Carles Puigdemont and six other former ministers of his Government, interpreting that the misappropriation of funds from the independence process is excluded from the law.
By Oriol Solé
11:18 h
Bolaños says he does not share “either the legal or political arguments” of the Supreme Court’s rulings that reject amnesty for Puigdemont and Junqueras’ embezzlement
The Minister of Justice, Presidency and Relations with the Parliament, Félix Bolaños, stated this Wednesday that he does not share “either the legal arguments nor the political arguments of the Supreme Court’s decisions” that reject applying amnesty to the pro-independence leaders who have been convicted or are being prosecuted for embezzlement, such as Oriol Junqueras and Carles Puigdemont.
In a statement prior to the opening ceremony of the Pablo Iglesias Foundation’s summer courses, Bolaños has nevertheless shown his “respect” for these judicial decisions and has assured that the amnesty law “is being applied normally” and that more than seventy people have been amnestied. “Normalisation in Catalonia is a fact and is unstoppable,” he asserted.
On the other hand, the Minister of Justice has stated that the statements of leaders of the Popular Party “delegitimising” the Constitutional Court “place it outside the institutional system” together with the parties of the extreme right. He has also described as “very worrying” what he has defined as a “hunt” by Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party against the court of guarantees.
Inform Elena Herrera
10:20 h
Bustinduy accuses the opposition of carrying out a strategy of “permanent delegitimization” of the Government and “destroying” the State institutions
The Minister for Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, has denounced that, since the last elections on July 23, “the Spanish right and far right have been applying a strategy of permanent delegitimization of this Government.” “And they have not stopped, they have not had obstacles in carrying out this strategy, rhetorically destroying all the institutions of the State, questioning basic principles of our democratic order,” he said in an interview on TVE.
Bustinduy has warned of the “danger” of this behaviour, which, he said, generates disaffection among citizens. The minister has clarified that in a democracy all debate and any type of criticism of the institutions and powers of the State are possible, but that they must always be said with “maximum respect for judicial decisions”, something that, he said, the PP and Vox do not do. “It creates alienation and generates a feeling of permanent noise and opportunism, because one says one thing from one position and then does the opposite from when one is in another,” he added. “I am concerned about the effect it may have on the health and quality of our democratic debate.
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