Former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos, now a deputy of the Joint Group, requested authorization from the Congressional Council to be able to participate electronically from his prison in the votes that will take place this Thursday in the plenary session of the Lower House. The Supreme Court has just ratified the decision of Judge Leopoldo Puente to sue him and his former advisor Koldo García for alleged irregularities in the mask contracts awarded by the Ministry of Transport during the pandemic, but the Congressional Council still does not have in its hands the official document to officially suspend Ábalos’ deputy rights.
Parliamentary sources explain that until they have received this confirmation from the Supreme Court, the Council will not be able to suspend it. So, at the time this communication arrives, Ábalos’ entourage broadcast through his “X” account that he had asked the House to vote electronically. The former minister clings to a recent reform of Congress regulations which speaks of “exceptional situations of particular gravity” as an exception to the granting of telematic voting to parliamentarians.
The MP underlines that the regulation does not specify the reason for this exceptional situation and assures that not granting authorization would be “an unprecedented and extremely serious violation of both the rights inherent to every MP and the representation of citizens”. Although the Council will now study this request and await the lawyers’ report, parliamentary sources have explained these days that the spirit of this change of regulation was designed for situations “exogenous” to deputies and that imprisonment is not one of them.
Most likely, Congress will not even have to deliberate on whether to grant Ábalos the possibility of voting electronically: as soon as the Supreme Court informs the Council that the order is final, Congress will be able to apply the part of the regulations that contemplates the suspension of the rights and duties of a deputy. This is article 21 which specifies that “deputies will be suspended from their parliamentary rights and duties when, once the authorization requested has been granted by the Chamber and the indictment order has been signed, they find themselves in a situation of preventive detention and for the duration thereof”.
The judge confirmed a few days ago his decision to send Ábalos to “pre-trial detention without bail”. Congress, however, avoided directly suspending his rights while waiting for the indictment against the former minister to be final. The Supreme Court had planned to deliberate on the appeals filed against this decision on December 4 and finally announced its decision on Wednesday.
Congress has tried to be a guarantee in its decisions in recent days and to scrupulously interpret the regulations in this matter, to avoid violating the rights of the deputy still in an unprecedented situation. This is why he will wait for the lawyers’ judgment to study whether or not to grant him telematic voting, in case it would still take several hours to obtain written confirmation from the Supreme Court.
About The Author
