Following the announcement by the deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, that the Spanish government will legally challenge Carles Puigdemont's candidacy for investiture as president, Puigdemont's election list, Junts per Catalunya, has warned that they don't plan to renounce his candidacy and directly called on the Parliament's speaker, Roger Torrent, to support him.
"We're convinced that [Torrent] will undertake the legal actions necessary to defend his Board's actions, his figure and his own ability to represent and arrange the debate in Catalonia", said deputy Eduard Pujol.
After a morning of back-and-forth with ERC over the date of the investiture debate, the JuntsxCat deputy called for "unity" against the "charge" against the Parliament. "They're serious hours", he warned to ask parliamentary parties, including the opposition, to "leave their refuges, abandon their comfort zones and stand beside those defending the rights of the chamber".
Puigdemont's group attacked the decision by Mariano Rajoy's government, made public this morning by his deputy, describing it as a coup d'état and an "unexpectedly serious" move which "again passes all the red lines" and shows that the Spanish executive doesn't accept the election result.
"We knew that democracy was threatened, today we have the proof. They've taken the mask off and told us strongly. In the face of pressure we have tenacity, which is to say that our candidate for president of Catalonia is Carles Puigdemont", said the deputy. He also accused Santamaría of "disobedience" towards the Spanish Constitution, the Parliament's lawyers and the Election Commission.
During the press conference, Pujol showed Puigdemont's accreditation as a candidate from the Electoral Commission and the pages of the Parliament's Official Gazette listing his name as a deputy. As such, he emphasised, the president is accredited with all the rights of any deputy and can, as such, stand in an investiture debate.
His fellow deputy, Gemma Geis, after accusing the deputy prime minister of using "abusive paths to achieve through suspension what they couldn't achieve through the ballot box", announced that Junts per Catalunya will undertake legal action to defend the rights of the deputies and of those who voted in the 21st December election.