The election night of May 12 has produced theoretical candidates for the presidency of the Generalitat. Both Salvador Illa and Carles Puigdemont have announced their intention to run for office. despite the fact that it is the socialist who won the elections in terms of votes and seats. The final decision does not depend on them, but on the amount of support they can get from the political groups in Parliament, in a negotiation that will take place in parallel with a new election campaign (that of the European elections on June 9) and the final approval and application of the amnesty These are the legal deadlines for the investiture.
On what day does the parliamentary term start?
According to the law of the Presidency of the Generalitat, parliament must be constituted within twenty working days of the elections. The Catalan Chamber has a deadline of June 10 (one day after the European one) to start the 14th parliamentary term.
A detail that is not unimportant: it is up to the acting president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, to convene the constituent session of the legislature, in which the presidency of the parliament is elected and which usually gives the first indications about the post – election treaties between the parties. If Aragonès wants to prevent Parliament's constitution from coinciding with the European Parliament election campaign, he could push the deadlines to the limit and draft Parliament's constitution on Monday, June 10.
When will the investiture debate take place?
Once the Chamber is constituted and the new Table is elected, the President of Parliament has ten working days to nominate a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, after a round of consultations with the parliamentary groups. The first investiture debate should take place no later than June 25, one day after the Sant Joan holiday.
The session begins with the proposal of a government program by the candidate asking for the confidence of the House. To become president on the first ballot, the candidate needs an absolute majority (68 delegates). If he fails, a second vote will take place 48 hours later, requiring only a simple majority. Achieving the presidency on the second ballot is one of the doors that Carles Puigdemont opened during the campaign and which was not concluded on Sunday.
And the amnesty?
The deadlines for the inauguration will run parallel to those for the final approval and application of the amnesty. The Senate, with the absolute majority of the PP, will reject the amnesty on Tuesday, after which the project will return to Congress for final approval at the end of May. From then on, the judges have two months, until the end of July, to apply the amnesty, a necessary measure so that Puigdemont can take his seat in parliament without being arrested.
Who is proposed for the investiture?
After the consultation round, the President of Parliament must propose a candidate for investiture based on the support he receives from the rest of the groups. The decision will then be made whether it is Illa or Puigdemont who asks for the House's confidence. But there is also the option for the investiture debate to be held without halting all support, as a way to comply with the Statute and Law of the Presidency and to move the deadlines towards an electoral repeat.
In the archives of the Parliament there is a report by the lawyers in which, after the unprecedented disqualification of an active President of the Generalitat (Quim Torra in 2020), they recalled that the institutional role of the President of Parliament not only entails he proposes to the Chamber a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat “susceptible” to obtaining the investiture, but also “so as not to prolong indefinitely a possible situation of blockade.”
What if no president is installed during the first debate?
If no candidate receives a simple majority in the second vote, which should take place no later than June 27, the President of Parliament could again nominate a candidate for president and the same investiture debate would be repeated, requiring a majority. absolute in the first mood and simple in the second.
Once the first investiture vote has taken place, the two-month period for the election repeat begins to run. If a new president is not installed by August 25, the legislature would automatically be dissolved and Aragonès, as acting president, would have to immediately call elections. The new elections must be held within 47 days of the call. Sunday, October 13, would be the first possible Sunday for an election repeat if Catalan politicians fail.