BarcelonaThe same week that the president, Pere Aragonès, reshuffled the Government to promote Laura Vilagrà to the vice-presidency and place Sergi Sabrià as vice-counselor for Strategy and Communication, there was another change that, despite being significant, went unnoticed: the Government dismissed on January 23 the head of the Generalitat’s legal cabinet, Mercè Corretja. And not only that: two weeks later the executive also removed one of his collaborators, the general director of rights and constitutional affairs of the body of lawyers of the Generalitat, Maria Àngels Arróniz. These dismissals have not occurred for “professional reasons” – all the sources consulted point to the validity of the two lawyers – but because of an open conflict for months between Corretja and the Secretary of Government, Xavier Bernadí, whom several sources accuse of ” pressures” in the legal cabinet of the Generalitat. The last one: the preparation of a report on the proposed amnesty law, pending in the Congress of Deputies, which Corretja was initially opposed to but ended up preparing due to Bernadí’s pressure.
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Let’s go to Pams. The spokeswoman for the Government, Patrícia Plaja, announced last November 14, just the day after the amnesty was registered in the Spanish Chamber, that the legal services of the Generalitat were studying the rule, despite the fact that at that time it was not they were aware: it was that same day that the Secretary of the Government, Xavier Bernadí, made the formal request to the head of the legal cabinet to “evaluate” the proposal and indicate if there were “aspects capable of improvement from the perspective of the interests of the Generalitat”, according to the request to which the ARA has had access. Corretja opposed it in a very tense meeting with Bernadí the same week that he threatened to remove her from her position for being “disloyal”.
With what argument did the legal services have to draw up a report on a law that is being processed in Congress and that does not have a direct competence impact on the Generalitat? Because of the “significance that the approval of the amnesty would have for a good number of high-ranking officials”, argued the request of the Secretary of Government, although at the same time it was from the party chaired by Oriol Junqueras, Esquerra, from where the negotiations on the law were piloted by leaders Marta Vilaret, Josep Maria Jové and Marta Rovira. In fact, Plaja defended himself in this by not assessing the content of the negotiations of the law during that press conference.
At that time Corretja’s impeachment was stopped by the intervention of other positions in the Presidency department, and after a tug-of-war with Bernadí during the Christmas holidays Corretja ended up drawing up an unsigned legal note and technical nature, in collaboration with Arróniz, on the amnesty law. He handed it in the week of January 9, before the deadline for amendments (January 16) ended in the Spanish chamber. What did the note say? According to the sources consulted, he defended the fit of the amnesty law with constitutional jurisprudence and called into question some points in the text, such as the fact that at that time – this has subsequently been changed – there was a distinction between cases of terrorism with a final sentence or without
How do the Government argue the termination of these lawyers? Official sources from the Presidency defend the dismissals on the premise that they are positions of “trust” – that is, they can dismiss them without justification – and “they are grateful for the services rendered”. They thus refuse to value anything further.
Tension over the distribution of lawyers
And it is that the underlying problem, according to several knowledgeable sources, was not the content of the report on the amnesty, but who has the power to control the legal services of the Generalitat. The issue of the amnesty is an “anecdote” of a conflict that has been open for almost a year, point out several government sources, between Bernadí and the head of the Generalitat’s legal services until now. A tension which, in return, has had an impact on the relationship between Bernadí and the general secretary of the Presidency, Núria Cuenca, two positions which – due to the nature of their powers – may come into conflict.
Beyond the amnesty, throughout the last year there have been continuous clashes between Corretja and Bernadí. After the report on the amnesty and before the impeachment on January 23, there was still another: the distribution of the Generalitat’s lawyers in the different departments. It is necessary to take into account the double dependence of lawyers on the Catalan executive: on the one hand, they depend on the Department of the Presidency, from which the legal cabinet of the Generalitat hangs; and, on the other hand, they depend on the general secretaries of each ministry to which they are assigned, who usually request all the reports. Well: Corretja agreed on a series of changes with those responsible for the Presidency, as well as the rest of the ministries affected (Justice and Territory), which also generated a clash with Bernadí. A few days after that, Corretja was dismissed from the position taking advantage of the last remodeling carried out by the president, Pere Aragonès. “The window of opportunity for the changes was taken advantage of to do so,” says a Government source. “Bernadí has confused the power to coordinate legal services with the power to control them”, says another voice who knows the department’s tricks and believes that Corretja wanted to maintain his “criterion”.
New appointments
The Government decided to replace Corretja with Sílvia Grau at the head of the legal cabinet, who is a criminal expert and trusted by Bernadí. And only two weeks later, the Government decided to dismiss Arróniz, whom most sources consider a “collateral victim” of this whole story considering his technical profile: until last year he was one of the lawyers of the The Council of Statutory Guarantees and several lawyers who have worked there praise his knowledge of constitutional jurisprudence. “They fired her because she was proposed by Corretja,” interprets another executive source. She has now been replaced by Rosa Maria Díaz, who was already part of the legal services of the Generalitat and Bernadí considers her in his circle.
2024-02-12 22:38:20
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