Possibly the former minister and former organizing secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, Jose Luis AbalosHe may go to prison is the scenario that the government, the Socialist Workers Party, the opposition and the House of Representatives itself estimate in all its aspects because the preventive detention of an MP has never happened before and now there is a high possibility that it will become a reality.
If so, your seat will remain silent but will still have your name and Sanchez He would lose the vote to which he had remained loyal until now, although Abalos left the socialist group for the mixed group.
If the judge Leopoldo Puente Deciding to deprive him of his freedom today, the former Minister will leave the Supreme Court for Soto del Real, taking with him the Deputy Registrar because he is only lost by a final judicial decision that annuls his election or declaration; Due to death or disability; By termination of the legislature or by resignation submitted to the House of Congress.
If neither of these occurs, Abalos will continue to hold his seat, but his parliamentary rights and duties will be suspended. In order for the suspension to take place, three conditions must be met: that the Chamber has approved the request requested by the Supreme Court to investigate him; That the final indictment has been issued, and finally that the person concerned is in pretrial detention.
The first condition was met on January 22 when Congress gave the green light to the request; The second, on November 3, when Judge Puente issued an order moving to an abbreviated procedure, or what is the same, the prosecution of the alleged crimes of bribery, criminal organization, influence peddling and misappropriation of public funds. Finally, today it is possible to meet the third condition, which is preventive detention.
Suspending a representative from work means a temporary loss of all rights in the parliamentary sphere. That is: You cannot participate in congressional activity that includes voting, introducing initiatives, participating in committees, subcommittees, or presentations, and you will not be able to receive any remuneration from the Chamber’s budget.
It will be the impossibility of voting that will affect the number of votes Sánchez will have to promote government projects, since José Luis Ábalos, since joining the mixed group, has remained faithful to the voting sense of the Socialists.
Yesterday, in the parliamentary media, there was a hypothesis that if he was finally ordered to go to prison, Abalos would decide to abandon the record. If so, her seat would return to the PSOE and would be occupied by the first candidate on the Valencia list who failed to enter the chamber at the beginning of the legislature. However, this is a possibility that depends only on the will of Abalos himself and seems very remote. It must be taken into account that it is not permissible to replace a suspended representative as long as he maintains his minutes.
What will in no way record changes, despite the rumors and doubts raised in recent weeks, is the numerical composition of the Council, and thus the majority barrier.
Legal experts in the congressional list point out that suspending a member of Parliament does not affect the legal number of members of the Council, as their seats continue to be counted for all purposes.
This means that the suspended representative is counted to determine the number of members of the chamber –350– And also when the absolute majority is established – which will continue to do so 176 Votes-; Qualified majority –210 Votes, i.e. three-fifths of the Council – and the enhanced qualified majority – 233 Votes or two-thirds of the total council.
The suspended MP is always assigned to the mixed group; You cannot be part of any other group. In Abalos’ case, it was already a part of him. But the suspension has no consequences for this parliamentary group, which will continue to consider the same matter, and therefore will not see its share of initiatives, its intervention times, or the amount of parliamentary support corresponding to it reduced.
The mixed group currently consists, in addition to José Luis Albalos, of the four Podemos deputies; Deputy of the Galician National Bloc (BNG); Canary Coalition (CC) deputy; actor One month commitment and Representative of the Union of Navarro People (UPN).