Appeal To Constitutional Court

Today at Berria:

Spanish Government to file appeal with the Constitutional Court

The Spanish Government’s aim is for the Constitutional Court to stop the BAC Government’s proposal going ahead

Editorial Staff – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The Spanish Government has announced that it will be filing an appeal against the proposal for a political statute of the Government of the BAC (Basque Autonomous Community of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) with the Spanish Constitutional Court. The Justice Minister, Jose Maria Michavila, pointed out yesterday that, according to the State Legal Services, the text approved by the BAC Government breaches five sections of the Constitution in over one hundred counts.

The aim of the Spanish Government is for the Constitutional Court to suspend the BAC Government’s proposal for a political statute and prevent any debate on it. Michavila was of the opinion that the Constitutional Court “might” as a precautionary measure suspend the proceedings of the proposal. In this respect, he said that apart from bringing an appeal against the proposal, if the Presiding Committee of the BAC Parliament decides to allow the proposal to proceed, the Spanish Government will also take action against this decision. Michavila did not indicate when they would be filing the appeal, but it could be understood from what he said that they will be waiting until the Presiding Committee takes that decision. In any case, there will be a period of two months to file the appeal starting from the moment when the BAC Government took the proposal to the BAC Parliament, and even if the decision of the Presiding Committee is delayed, the Spanish Government will still have a two-month deadline. Michavila said the Spanish Government would have recourse to the Constitutional Court “when it was deemed appropriate.”

The Spanish Government believes it has “sufficient juridical power” to appeal against the BAC Government’s proposal. In fact the way the BAC Government presented the proposal to reform the Statute was a “camouflaged” reform of the Spanish Constitution; and as Article 46 of the BAC Statute has to be used for reforming it (which is what the BAC Government has done) another means has to be used to reform the Constitution. “Article 168 of the Spanish Constitution sets out how the Constitution has to be modified, and the BAC Government knows this and has deliberately decided to commit legal fraud”.

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