After Judge Leopoldo Puente decided on Wednesday to send former Transportation Secretary José Luis Albalos to preventive detention, a new scenario begins in Congress. The former Secretary of the Organization of the Socialist Workers’ Party, MP since February 2024 in the Mixed Group of the House of Representatives, was certified after the general elections of June 2023 on the Socialist list for Valencia, although he has been a deputy since 2009. As soon as it became known that the Supreme Court judge ordered him to go to prison – which the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office had previously requested without bail after requesting a sentence of 24 years in prison – the Presidency sent the congressman an official letter to the Supreme Court in order to ratify the measure and the indictment or what Equivalent to start the process of agreeing to suspend the schedule, in accordance with Article 21.2 of the Regulations of Congress, parliamentary sources reported on Thursday. What happens now with your seat? Will he lose his position as deputy? Will the majority of members of the House of Representatives change?
His rights as a deputy are suspended, but he maintains the record. It is Article 21 of the Congressional Regulations that stipulates in its second point that representatives will be suspended from exercising their parliamentary rights and duties when, “once the authorization has been granted at the request of the chamber and the impeachment order has been signed, they will be in a state of preventive detention and for the duration thereof.”
This means that three requirements are required together to suspend his powers as an MP: application, imprisonment and final indictment order. Ábalos has no conclusive indictment. But this condition is not necessary when it is an abbreviated procedure, as sources from the House of Congress explained accordingly Comments on Congressional regulations. The same sources assume that the measure taken by Albalos is a summary measure, and thus confirm that the criteria for suspending his rights are met.
The Council will meet to begin the process of suspending the parliamentarian as soon as it receives a letter from the Supreme Court. This meeting can be held electronically at any time.
What a suspension means: You will stop voting and lose your pay. Abalos will lose his powers as deputy, although he will continue to hold the register. From that moment on, you 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 you are released from pretrial detention, you will have your rights restored.
Alabalos could have given up the record before facing Puente, but he didn’t. A move that might have allowed him to gain months by returning his case to the national court.
What happens to the majority? The final decision on this point will be taken by the Congress, with a majority of the SWP and SUMMER.
From here, two hypotheses can be put forward: That the Council maintain the number of 350 deputies as it is, even if Abalos is absent. Or reduce it to 349. Although there has been debate in recent weeks on this issue, parliamentary sources now indicate that the majority will remain as is.
These sources are also supported by what was collected in this regard in Comments on Congressional regulations: “With regard to the consequences of suspending a member of parliament on the Council, it must be emphasized, first of all, that it does not affect the legal number of members of the Council, since they are counted for all purposes (this is what the tables of the House of Representatives and the Senate have determined in the various issues that have arisen). In this way, suspended representatives are counted for the purposes of determining the number of members of the Council and determining the absolute majority and the rest of the qualified majority.”
Although the situation is not exactly comparable, there is also a similar precedent: that of the four deputies Operations Who were suspended in 2019, even though they were already in prison. Then the Congress decided, after the lawyers’ report, that the absolute majority remained at 176 seats out of a total of 350 seats. It was the Socialist Workers’ Party, the Popular Party and the Socialist Party that supported maintaining these numbers, in opposition to Podemos.
In support of their decision, the parties relied on a report by Congressional lawyers in which it was stated as follows: “According to precedent, a distinction must be made between a representative being suspended from his rights and duties and not having acquired full status, as well as losing the said status. Therefore, it must be understood that the suspended representatives retain the status of members of the Council and must therefore be counted for the purposes of its composition, which is limited to 350 from the day of its formation.” The Constitution, and therefore does not affect the number of votes required to achieve an absolute majority (176) and the rest of the special majority determined by the Constitution, basic laws or regulations of Congress.
If the chamber’s vote count is not adjusted, Abalos’ absence without relinquishing the minutes will add to the volatility of an already complex legislature in which all votes are counted. Without taking into account possible errors and absences – which would change any calculations – Carles Puigdemont’s abstention would leave the two blocs tied (171 for PP, Vox and UPN compared to 171 for the rest of the investment partners). In those cases, on the third tie vote, the initiative falls.