The Constitutional Court has admitted the appeal filed by the PSOE against the reform of the Senate’s Rules of Procedure that was promoted by the PP in order to delay the debate on the amnesty law in the upper chamber. This admission of the appeal implies that it will be resolved by judgment, probably within a few months, according to sources within the Constitutional Court. This means that the bill for the pardon of those involved in the pro-independence process will likely pass through the Senate without being subjected to the urgent procedure – as was the case in the Congress when the initiative was presented on December 12 – as intended by the PP led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which holds an absolute majority in the Senate. As a result, the bill’s passage through the Senate will likely take about two months from the time it reaches the Congress.
The motion of unconstitutionality against the reform of the Senate’s Rules of Procedure was filed by more than 50 senators from the Socialist Parliamentary Group. The challenge is against the modification of articles 133 and 182, approved by the Senate’s Plenary on November 14. This reform allows the Senate’s Board to autonomously decide on the urgent processing of bills, even if they have already undergone an urgent procedure in the Congress of Deputies. The PSOE believes that these changes to the mentioned provisions could violate article 90.3 of the Constitution, which states that the Senate has a period of two months to veto or amend a bill, but this period is reduced to twenty days in cases declared urgent by the Government or Congress.
The Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Senate argues that the procedure followed by the PP for this reform is “radically unconstitutional” and has opened an unprecedented crisis in the legislative system by altering the balance between the functions of the Congress and the Senate. The PSOE argues that when a bill is declared urgent for processing in the Congress, as in this case, this should be applied automatically in the Senate. The challenge suggests that the regulatory change approved by the PP violates article 90.3 of the Constitution. It explains that the Constitutional Court’s case law has repeatedly considered that this provision applies not only to government bills but also to bills from the Cortes, as the similarities between the two types of bills highlight their legal regime.
Additionally, the Constitutional Court also admitted another appeal of unconstitutionality filed by the PSOE against changes in the language laws of the Balearic Islands by the PP regional government. The appeal challenges a section of the second final provision and the sole derogatory provision of the Decree-Law of the Government of the Balearic Islands 5/2023 which includes measures to eliminate the requirement of a specific level of knowledge of Catalan as a prerequisite for access to positions in the Health Service of the Balearic Islands. The MPs argue that this could violate articles 86 of the Constitution and 49 of the Balearic Islands’ Statute of Autonomy, as well as the linguistic co-officiality regime and citizens’ right to use the Catalan language in their interactions with the health administration.
