After a meeting with the parliamentary groups, with the governing councils of Congress and the Senate, the Popular Party wants to assess the response of the Court of Justice of the European Union to the question referred by the Supreme Court of Spain on the status of Parliamentarian of Mr. Junqueras.
What we mean, in the first place, is our strong defense of the rule of law of Spain and, in addition, of all the judicial procedure that, with full guarantees and with full publicity, took place against politicians who tried to strike the State .
Secondly, and after this resolution, we have to maintain that Junqueras is still a criminal, convicted, and Puigdemont is still a fugitive from Spanish Justice. Nothing has changed legally.
Thirdly, the Popular Party will do everything in our power so that Junqueras is serving his sentence and Puigdemont responds to his crimes on a bench.
With full respect for judicial independence and the separation of powers from Spain, the Popular Party believes that Junqueras must remain in jail and that Puigdemont must end up in jail.
We will lead, in fact, in Spanish society and in Parliament a response, which will also be extended to community institutions. Not all parties can say that they are part of a political family in Europe that they have no other parties, which cover the thesis of the separatists.
The Popular Party will exercise that work. The State cannot be unarmed in community institutions. And I also appeal to the acting Government to exercise its responsibility in Brussels.
And finally, we want to announce that we are going to promote the strengthening of the State through different mechanisms. One of them is that you cannot choose, those fugitives from justice who are escaped cannot be elected. Secondly, and today we are also talking about it in Brussels, that the euroorder must be modified to include in the mechanisms of automatic delivery to the criminals claimed by the Justice of the member states for such serious crimes as sedition and rebellion.
And, precisely, thirdly, we maintain our proposal to retype the crime of improper rebellion to give mechanisms to the judges to make the sentences more severe. Finally, I would like to remind you that we have already presented a proposal for a law to typify the crime of illegal referendum, which, incidentally, Mr. Sánchez also committed himself in an electoral campaign to support. I don't know if he can do it now, after the conversations he is having.
He also wanted to raise the position of the Popular Party in relation to the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia on the disobedience of Joaquín Torra. First, Mr. Torra has been sentenced to a disqualification penalty and, therefore, should resign immediately, today. But until then and knowing that it intends to appeal, the Popular Party will request today the Electoral Board to execute that sentence for immediate dismissal, whether now, if its appeal is inadmissible, as soon as they resolve.
Therefore, we think it is very important to remember the seriousness of Mr. Sánchez being negotiating with these criminals, with Mr. Torra and with Mr. Junqueras, because the Socialist Party cannot be the Trojan horse of separatism, nor in the Government of Spain or in the European institutions, neither in the mayors' offices nor in the Diputación de Barcelona.
Faced with this challenge to the constitutional order of the separatists, the Popular Party reaches out to the acting Government to ensure that the Constitution is fulfilled in Catalonia and in the rest of the Spanish nation, which is unique and indivisible.
Thank you very much.