The Supreme Court informed Congress on Friday morning that former Socialist Rep. José Luis Abalos, now in the mixed group, is in “temporary detention with notice and without bail” and that this situation is not stable and will be reviewed, due to appeals filed, next Thursday, December 4. Congress has taken note of this response and will postpone until that day the decision of its Board of Directors to suspend him from his position as Representative.
Congress sent a letter to the Supreme Court to find out Abalos’ formal procedural status after Thursday’s hearing in that court in which his custodial procedures were changed and Judge Leopoldo Puente ordered him to go to prison due to flight risk.
The Supreme Court reported on Friday the content of the order signed by the judge on Thursday in which José Luis Albalos was issued “temporary detention without bail”, but which also “highlights that the order of summary procedure is not final”, as it is being appealed by the representative of the former Socialist MP, now assigned to the mixed group. The court is scheduled to hear this appeal on December 4 at 11:30.
They reserve in Congress until that time next Thursday to hold an extraordinary meeting, remotely or in person, to implement Article 21 of the regulation, which states that “Deputies will be suspended from exercising their parliamentary rights and duties, when they grant the Council permission subject to a request, sign the impeachment order, and are in a state of pretrial detention for the entire period.”
Abalos will then lose his powers as an MP, although he will continue to hold the register, and from that point on he will not be able to vote, participate in parliamentary activity or belong to a group in the House of Representatives. He will not receive a financial reward; That is, neither his general salary as a deputy nor the rest of the benefits. If he is released from pretrial detention, he will regain his rights. If he renounces his record, as his successor at the head of the PSOE’s organizational secretariat, Santos Cerdán, did last June, his case will return to the National Court and will not jeopardize obtaining the compensation to return to his former life planned by Congress and which in his case, after serving seven terms in the Council, is estimated at 100 thousand euros.
Abalos’ position further complicates the work of the majority that supports the coalition government of the PSOE and Somar in Congress, especially in some votes. The Council will have to consider, in due course, whether the inability to rely on Albalos will change the Council’s majority, which now has 176 seats out of a total of 350. Parliamentary sources indicate that this majority will not be affected yet.