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Lawyer and MP for Junts (Together for Catalonia) Jaume Alonso Cuevillas is to leave his position on the Bureau of the recently elected Catalan Parliament and will be replaced by his fellow Junts deputy Aurora Madaula, after yesterday putting his position at the disposition of the party due to statements he made suggesting that the Bureau, in its function of deciding the agenda of debates and bills to be considered by Parliament, should not accept motions for resolutions on the Spanish king or on self-determination.

The substitution was announced this Monday morning by the party, which stated that once Cuevillas put his position in the hands of Junts candidature leader and parliamentary speaker Laura Borràs, she reached agreement with the party's general secretary Jordi Sànchez and its president Carles Puigdemont. The decision now awaits confirmation at the next party executive meeting. It is also reported that Cuevillas will continue as a member of the Junts parliamentary group, and the lawyer wished "luck and success" to both Madaula and Borràs. “We continue,” he added.

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Aurora Madaula will be the new second secretary of the Bureau of the Catalan Parliament / ACN

The internal party crisis began on Friday, when in an interview published in the VilaWeb digital newspaper, Cuevillas argued that Bureau decisions to proceed with parliamentary proposals on the king or the self-determination issue would not be "intelligent confrontation". "This is trying to put up resistance in a testosterone-like way, like a Legionnaire who sees he is being fired at but goes forward bare-chested," he added in the interview, concluding that "immolation has to be performed if it is effective."

Annoyance in Junts 

The lawyer's statements caused annoyance in Junts, and party leaders had already expressed on Friday that the expected response from Cuevillas would be to resign from the Bureau of the Catalan chamber if he thinks this way, as the priority must be to defend the sovereignty of Parliament.

Among the leaders who expressed criticism were president Quim Torra, who lamented that his own position was considered by Cuevillas as "idiotic" or the former deputy speaker of Parliament, Josep Costa, who is himself being prosecuted at present for processing proposals on Felipe VI and self-determination. Costa asserted that "defending the sovereignty of Parliament" or "being imprisoned or disqualified" "is not idiotic."

Yesterday, Cuevillas sent a letter to the parliamentary group of Junts, to which ElNacional.cat had access, where he apologized for the statements and stated that, when the time came, he would act "in the way that Junts decides and always with loyalty" to speaker Laura Borràs.

In the letter, Cuevillas clarified his words in the interview, insisting that when he spoke of "intelligent confrontation", he was referring to Carles Puigdemont's concept. "I am in favour, and this is stated in the transcript, of maintaining the confrontation with the state, but I specify that, in my opinion, it must be intelligent confrontation and not merely symbolic. That is why I am not in favour of [the Bureau] accepting resolutions that are merely declarational which could lead straight to disqualification from office without any tangible political benefit. It is a different situation if the decision of the Bureau, with risk of disqualification included, could bring some political benefit (for example, investing a president despite the Constitutional Court's prohibition, or defending the standing of [parliamentary decisions] in the face of certain judicial or administrative resolutions", he indicated.

 

Main image: Jaume Alonso Cuevillas, Junts MP and, till now, second secretary of the Bureau of the Catalan Parliament.  / ACN