My interpretation is that Spain is following the principle that "If you can't beat 'em at the polls, bash them right left and centre"
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Get the Constitutional Court to adopt unheard-of (and unasked-for!) precautionary measures against the incumbent President to prevent the Parliament from ratifying him in his post.
Let us recall that on October 27 Spain had applied measures not envisaged in the Constitution and specifically excluded from Catalonia's regional Constitution.
The precautionary measures were adopted by the Court instead of immediately refusing to admit an appeal by the Spanish government that not even the conservative Council of State thought had any constitutional grounding.
Spain has been trying to prevent the Republican majority in the Catalan Parliament (Republican because they adopted the Independence Resolution on October 27 2017) from forming a government, at which moment it is committed to removing direct rule.
It has put or kept the leadership of both the main parties in detention without bail despite the parliamentary immunity of most of them. It has done so not in a Catalan gaol (they all live in Catalonia, the alleged crime of rebellion was in Catalonia, but their gaols are over 600 km away).
It has forced president Puigdemont to withdraw his candidacy. It has forced his No. 2 Jordi Sanchez, the first to be gaoled, to withdraw his candidacy (Sanchez has on his side a UN human rights committee ruling laying down immediate precautionary measures to ensure he can exercise his political rights, which Spain is likely to ignore). The third candidate, Jordi Turull, did not get enough votes in the first count, and was imprisoned before the second count took place.
The next step is for the judge to suspend the defendants that are still MPs. This would confound any hopes of Puigdemont's reinstatement: under Spanish law (the regional constitution, known as Statute of Autonomy) the president of Catalonia (though no other members of his or her government) has to be an MP.
The precautionary measures were adopted by the Court instead of immediately refusing to admit an appeal by the Spanish government that not even the conservative Council of State thought had any constitutional grounding.
Spain has been trying to prevent the Republican majority in the Catalan Parliament (Republican because they adopted the Independence Resolution on October 27 2017) from forming a government, at which moment it is committed to removing direct rule.
It has put or kept the leadership of both the main parties in detention without bail despite the parliamentary immunity of most of them. It has done so not in a Catalan gaol (they all live in Catalonia, the alleged crime of rebellion was in Catalonia, but their gaols are over 600 km away).
It has forced president Puigdemont to withdraw his candidacy. It has forced his No. 2 Jordi Sanchez, the first to be gaoled, to withdraw his candidacy (Sanchez has on his side a UN human rights committee ruling laying down immediate precautionary measures to ensure he can exercise his political rights, which Spain is likely to ignore). The third candidate, Jordi Turull, did not get enough votes in the first count, and was imprisoned before the second count took place.
The next step is for the judge to suspend the defendants that are still MPs. This would confound any hopes of Puigdemont's reinstatement: under Spanish law (the regional constitution, known as Statute of Autonomy) the president of Catalonia (though no other members of his or her government) has to be an MP.
However, the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by judge Llarena has held up this suspension, given that the latter would further reinforce the plentiful evidence that the currently detained defendants are political prisoners.
See also Xavi Tedó (Ara), "Torrent insta a bastir un front democràtic ampli contra la repressió": https://www.ara.cat/politica/Torrent_0_1984001797.html
See Speaker Roger Torrent's speech: https://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2018/03/speaker.html
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