The Catalan government now has a report from the Legal Advisory Commission which confirms that Mariano Rajoy's executive has to allow the publication of the nominations of president Quim Torra's new cabinet in the government's gazette. The ruling says that the ministers in exile or in prison can take office. Given the report's conclusion, Torra will today ask the Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia for urgent interim measures, which should allow for the swearing-in to be unblocked in the very near future. He "doesn't discount taking legal actions", his office said in a press statement.
"President Quim Torra plans to adopt the pertinent legal measures to ensure their rights are respected, among which he doesn't discount a complaint of malfeasance against president Rajoy," they say.
Torra asked for the report on the issue after the Spanish executive refused to publish the nominations of his ministers. By preventing the publication, Rajoy's government is blocking the nominations from entering into effect and preventing the ministers, including two in prison and two in exile, from taking office.
According to the report, a president's powers for constituting their government are discretionary and "not subject to authorisation nor control deriving from the measures adopted by application of article 155".
The verdict emphasises that the president can order the publication of such nominations and, given that the control the Spanish government enjoys is "merely formal and constitutes a regulated action", if such publication is denied they risk "not complying with the law, contravening the legal system".
The commission also argues that those appointed to be part of the government have no limits on the exercising of their political rights and "there is no legal circumstance which would prevent their swearing in".