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To go on the offensive, taking advantage of a slip by judge Pablo Llarena in comments he made in Oviedo, to leave his reputation bruised and, who knows, maybe even managing to stop the investigation. These are the three objectives of the civil lawsuit presented by president Carles Puigdemont and the ministers in exile in Brussels -Toni Comín, Lluís Puig and Meritxell Serret- before a Belgian court which has already set a date for the trial: 4th September. The Catalan independence movement has turned the legal tables with an initiative looking to put the controversial Supreme Court judge in check and which aims to lay bare how pro-independence leaders cannot defend their basic rights in Spain, but they can before another country's courts. The government in exile's accusation is based, among other things, on the fact that the judge is not protected by his immunity, as it's not a debate on what he said in a ruling, rather on what he said to the media in Oviedo, when they asked him about the pro-independence leaders and whether they're political prisoners or not.

Rajoy's resignation as leader of the PP, the imminent announcement of Pedro Sánchez's new cabinet and even former PM Aznar's threat hinting at a hypothetical return, have sunk a story which any other day would occupy pride of place in the news, since it's not something that happens every day. In any case, the independence movement has chalked up a first victory, sending a very clear message: judge Llarena will have to appear before a Belgian court to defend himself from the civil case, a regulated procedure in that country which prosecutors aren't involved in and which doesn't need a court to consider whether or not to accept it into consideration either. Simply, the Belgian judge sets the date for the hearing and it will be the members of the government in exile who have to demonstrate that their rights to an impartial trial, to equitable and fair legal proceedings and to the presumption of innocence have been violated. If Llarena or his representatives don't present themselves, they could lose automatically.

If it weren't for the importance of the case, the logical thing to do would be to postpone the whole investigation, as, if Llarena has a trial outstanding, according to some legal scholars, it could be interpreted as him committing malfeasance to go ahead. Another solution would be for the Supreme Court itself to move the judge aside, then who knows if there could be a different path taken in some of the decisions of the investigation so far.

Europe and its courts have become a real problem for Spanish justice, which is seeing everything it decides here being questioned or rejected abroad. A true mess which joins the feeling of great chaos in Spain, with a government whose future trajectory is unknown after the agreement between the parliamentary parties to send Mariano Rajoy into political retirement. An agreement which is still too fragile to not give the Spanish legislature up for dead.