Spain Wants to Stop Proposal

Today at Berria:

Spanish Government aims to stop Statute Proposal going through parliament

They will be resorting to article 161.2 of the Spanish Constitution to request that the proceedings be suspended with immediate effect

Editorial Staff – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The Spanish Government wants to stop the Statute Proposal of the Parliament of the BAC [Basque Autonomous Community of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa] from proceeding from the very first moment, and they will be filing an appeal for this purpose with the Constitutional Court next Thursday, according to the Justice Minister, Jose Maria Michavila. It was only yesterday that the Spanish Government indicated how it was planning to resort to the Constitutional Court, and Michavila pointed out that they would be blocking the text on the basis of article 161.2 of the Spanish Constitution, and this would lead to the “automatic suspension” of proceedings.

Despite the doubts existing until now, Michavila said that the fact that the BAC Government’s proposal was not a bill would not prevent an appeal being brought: “If it were a law, the Government would choose another option and would immediately file an appeal of unconstitutionality. It is not a law, so we have adopted another means provided for in the Constitution, the one which provides for the overruling of decisions of autonomous communities.”

The article in question refers to the possibility of bringing appeals against “provisions and decisions” with the Constitutional Court and states that this will lead to the blocking of the decisions. However, it does not specify whether the blocking is “automatic”, as Michavila has insisted. There were those who expressed doubts about this yesterday. Emilio Olabarrria, EAJ (Basque Nationalist Party) member of the BAC Parliament and former member of the General Council of the Judiciary, said the Constitutional Court could take two decisions: “One would be to allow the appeal to proceed without taking precautionary measures; the other would be to adopt precautionary measures and suspend the proceedings. But it is the Constitutional Court that has to take the decision”.

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