Top Spanish court orders Senate to stop vote after appeal from right-wing opposition parties
đJudges' late-night decision comes after a week of intense political confrontation at the highest level of Spanish politics, with MPs warning of constitutional crisis.
đAUDIO: Top Spanish court orders Senate to stop vote
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As I write these lines tonight for you shortly before 11 p.m., the latest reports say that the Constitutional Court has approved an urgent injuction requested by the opposition Popular Party and Vox to prohibit a vote in the Spanish Senate this Thursday on two amendments related to the election of the members of the Constitutional Court itself. Judges had been in session almost all day and the PSOE and Podemos had unsuccessfully tried to recuse two of the judges voting today because their mandates had expired. They ruled they could vote.
According to Europa Press, it is the first time in more than 40 years of democracy in modern Spain that the Constitutional Court has ordered a national parliamentary debate stopped. "As a democrat I do not want and I cannot imagine that scenario, I cannot contemplate it", said the Education Minister, Pilar AlegrĂa (PSOE), earlier on Monday.
In the absence of any order from the Constitutional Court last Thursday, the Spanish Congress voted in favor of the reform, which then moved to the Senate for ruther passage.
âPopular sovereignty lies in Congress,â said MarĂa JesĂșs Montero (PSOE, Finance Minister) last week: âit is the center of democracy in our country. Precisely when what is at stake is the unblocking of the Constitutional Court, and the same institution that we are trying to unblock is the one that is interfering so that the normal passage of legislation does not occur, I think everyone can see that for what it is, a very serious event".
âIt is unprecedented in 40 years of democracyâ, she added: âit would mean an unprecedented attack on democracy and an institutional crisis our democracy has no memory ofâ.
Felipe Sicilia, speaking for the socialists in parliament, said last Thursday that "41 years ago, the right wanted to stop a parliamentary session and stop democracy: they did it with three-cornered hats [in reference to Civil Guard involvement in the 1981 coup attempt] and today they wanted to do it with judgesâ robes but they have not succeeded because our democracy is strong and solidâ.
"If someone thinks that comparing us with Tejero [the 1981 Civil Guard coup leader in parliament] is going to intimidate us, they are wrong", said Popular Party leader FeijĂło on Monday: "The government hid its intentions and it did it so quickly and in the dark because they are ashamed and because they know it is an unprecedented outrage and that most people reject itâ.
"This is a serious threat to democracy, surely the most serious since the 1981 coup", said Jaume Asens, spokesman for Podemos in Congress, on Thursday.
"The outpourings of PSOE MPs and government allies against the Constitutional Court are shameful", said Ciudadanos leader InĂ©s Arrimadas: "They are the same mantras Catalan separatists used in 2017 to position Catalonia outside of the Constitution: that is what SĂĄnchez is doing with Spain todayâ. Vox leader Santiago Abascal thought "the moment is very serious".
"The decision of the Constitutional Court should stop, for the moment, SĂĄnchez's assault", Abascal (Vox) tweeted late on Monday night after learning of the court's decision: "But nothing has been won, because he continues on with his plan to stay in power. He is capable of disregarding the courtâ.
âThe right wing of the Constitutional Court has stopped a democratic vote in the seat of popular sovereigntyâ, tweeted Ione Belarra (Podemos, Social Affairs Minister): âThe political, media and judicial right has landed an unprecedented blow on democracy. It is time to show that us democrats are better than that".