Parliament rejects ousting Laura Borràs as speaker after corruption sentence
Electoral authority had asked for stance and may remove her from post despite final ruling still pending
The Catalan parliament has rejected ousting pro-independence politician Laura Borràs as chamber speaker after her corruption sentence.
The official, also president of Junts party, received a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence and 13-year disqualification for corruption on March 30 for splitting contracts to avoid public tenders favoring her friend when she was the head of the Catalan Institute of Letters (ILC).
Following her sentence, which can still be appealed before the Spanish Supreme Court, the electoral authority gave the Catalan parliament 10 business days to determine her current status.
On Friday, the chamber bureau released their stance, responding that they deemed sacking her "unnecessary and disproportionate" since the sentence is not final and saying that she has already been temporarily suspended from her post while waiting for the judges' deliberations, which means she is not earning a salary or has parliamentary rights at the moment.
Indeed, they said that if the Supreme Court overrules the Catalan high court, she will not have to serve her time disqualified.
They also argued that the electoral authority is not part of the judiciary, so they have no power to rule in these cases.
However, the electoral board may oust her from power, as they did with former president Quim Torra and MP Pau Juvillà after they received guilty verdicts pending a final ruling in their legal cases.