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Although it was an open secret that the Spanish right was going to try it, it did not really seem to be happening until the Madrid newspaper ABC fired the first shot: Spain's central electoral commission could, in the first days of January, actively apply the ban on holding public office to which Catalan president Quim Torra was sentenced before Christmas. The method used would be a favourable response from the commission to the Popular Party petition which was rejected by the Barcelona provincial electorial commission a few days ago, and which Pablo Casado's party has now escalated to the superior administrative body, for a hearing on January 3rd. Under normal conditions, you would have to rule out that any of this could happen, because between the Catalan High Court (TSJC), which ruled that the Catalan president should be banned from public office for a year and a half on the 19th December, and the Supreme Court, which will have to resolve the appeal when the file arrives on its desk, there is no other judicial body. But this is what the letter of the law says, while as we have seen too many times lately, cutting corners is the order of the day even if there is no precedent for it.

Madrid's rabid right, all upset since the European Court of Justice ruling on the immunity as MEPs of Puigdemont, Junqueras and Comín, is speculating that with such a decision the electoral commission would achieve two things: restore its wounded pride after the damage done by the Luxembourg court's ruling, and sabotage - or at least attempt to sabotage - the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as new Spanish PM. Applying the ban on president Torra via the back door would be an even greater abuse than the Catalan institutions suffered with the sui generis application of Article 155 of the Constitution, because it is not categorised as a motive for dismissal in Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy. Those cooking up this concoction calculate that a resolution by an administrative body such as the electoral commission to immediate disqualify the Catalan president from holding office could have the collateral effect of immobilizing ERC, prevent its members from helping Pedro Sánchez to power, and thus open other options for investiture or even new elections.

The most curious piece in this whole political puzzle is that Sánchez's investiture is still technically up in the air, because, among other reasons, the State Solicitors have not yet given their view of the ECJ's ruling on Oriol Junqueras' immunity and release from prison. From what has been leaked, the tension is high among the government's legal representatives and they are passing the report round among themselves. And, when it comes to Pedro Sánchez, experience shows that it is better to have everything in writing, because the commitments he makes tend to get lost in the wind. The latest example is his failure to comply with the election promise of raising pensions with inflation, which he has decided to freeze until the formation of a new government, along with the minimum wage. Not having yet completed the formation of a government is a poor excuse, because under the same circumstances Mariano Rajoy increased pensions as well as the minimum wage.

But back to the electoral commission. A fast-track application of the ban on office-holding for Torra would also end up in the Catalan Parliament, since as its first effect he would no longer be a parliamentary deputy. We will see how far the perversion of the law goes.