The decision of Together for Catalonia (Junts) not to replace Laura Borràs as the speaker of the Catalan Parliament, once the chamber's procedural Bureau had decided to suspend her from the position after she was sent to trial, lacks political logic. How difficult it is to understand Junts' strategy of asking the Bureau to reconsider the removal of Borràs on the first day back at work after two weeks' vacation. In politics, an office that you don't occupy will be occupied by someone else. It is never empty. And so, at Parliament's presentation of the acts of homage to the victims of the 2017 Catalonia terror attacks, Assumpta Escarp, second deputy speaker of the Catalan chamber and a deputy for the Catalan Socialists (PSC), will be present in representation of Catalonia's second most important institution.
I had the impression that the summer period would serve to cool this issue down and find a solution to avoid what happened in Quim Torra's case happening to Junts again, that is, his forced removal from the presidency of the Generalitat due to the absurd case of hanging a banner on the balcony of Plaça de Sant Jaume in defence of the Catalan political prisoners. The decision of the Catalan High Court was ill-judged and his disqualification from office by the Supreme Court, political interference. But the result was what it was, and this and many other mistakes made Junts go from second place in the 2017 elections - and first place among the pro-independence parties - to third in February 2021 - and retreating to second-placed pro-independence party, behind the Catalan Republican Left (ERC).
Junts learned nothing from that episode, and now, in a case in which there is a serious accusation of corruption against Laura Borràs, the strategy they are seeking to pursue is the same: leave the chair empty, and wait for massive citizen support that will not occur. It was already seen in the call to citizens that was held in Parliament, or in the silence of the ministers of the Generalitat, the majority of the parliamentary group or the executive. You only need to take a trip around Catalonia to see the disconnection of the pro-independence electorate from the parties that represent it and, in the case of the ranks of Junts, the enormous concern now to stabilize the party with the municipal elections just around the corner. The candidature of Xavier Trias for the mayoral seat of Barcelona, well established at the beginning of August, can only enter into crisis if the permanent noise does not disappear from the organization.
One last point: the lawyer Gonzalo Boye, who has, together with other international lawyers, led an intelligent strategy in Europe to defend the pro-independence parties, has managed to get the Spanish state to compromise. Comparing the situation of the earlier speaker and the Catalan ministers in exile with the case of Borràs is almost a leap into the void. I am very much afraid that it will not give the same result, since one case, with Boye - and the other, this one without Boye - are not at all alike.