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Catalan politicians could receive as much as €70,000 in back-pay from the European Parliament

The ruling european that will allow the former Catalan Carles Puigdemont, and the exconsejero Toni Comín access to the european Parliament as meps, as of right not only provides them with immunity and a powerful speaker in the media. Both will grow with force in a few weeks the figure in their bank accounts. Sources of the administration of the European Parliament confirm to THE COUNTRY that they be paid salaries and allowances that were supposed to be perceived as meps from the past July 2, the day of the start of the legislature, despite not having been able to play its role by having vetoed the entry.

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Samuel Sanchez, THE COUNTRY, The European Parliament recognizes as an mep to Junqueras, The Electoral Board denies the european Parliament and ensures that you notified the suspension of Junqueras

The net salary of a euro mp amounts to 6.824,85 euros per month, and the general expenditure allowance to 4.513 euros. Having been six months private illegally receiving both items, the amount accumulated that will now go hit it closer to 70,000 euros each, almost 80,000 if it comes along with the payroll of January. Junqueras will not benefit from the cash injection after the Supreme Court deemed that it has been disabled.

The diet of general expenses, which will be an important part of the payment, is intended to cover the office rent, telephone, subscriptions, activities of representation, purchase of computer equipment and organisation of conferences and exhibitions, but it is not mandatory to spend the money the same month that you receive it, and bills it is only necessary to present them if Parliament requires it, not consistently.

The late landing of Puigdemont and Comín in Strasbourg has finally been possible because of a decision of the european court. The Court of Justice of the EU ruled on 19 December that the elected candidates are members of the European Parliament since the proclamation of the results, which in practice means that it should have been allowed to Puigdemont and Comín have been in Strasbourg on July 2 at the inaugural session. That day, the legislature began to walk with 748 parliamentarians for the absences of Puigdemont, Comín and Junqueras.

From the beginning of the week, the european Parliament has been taking the steps necessary to comply with the ruling of the Luxembourg Court: the names of Puigdemont, Comín and Junqueras are already contained in the web page of the institution and have enabled a personal mailbox. The first two premiered his condition on Monday 13 January in Strasbourg. There, as in the Parliament headquarters in Brussels, will have his own law firm and, if needed, official car, like the rest of meps.

The lawyer Puigdemont Gonzalo Boye ensures that you still have not addressed with your client on the payment of the past due money, but considering the outlay, "the logical consequence of the decision on Monday," in reference to the internal note that the European Parliament sent that day, in which it acknowledged as meps to the three pro-independence leaders.

Vox has already announced that it will seek to avoid payment: the politician Jorge Buxadé has sent a letter to the Court of Auditors of the EU, the anti-Fraud Office and the director of Finance of the Parliament, advising them that it is illegal to pay Puigdemont and Comín retroactively for having been officially deputies from the autonomous region, until his resignation on 7 January, and threatens to bring the case to court.

The transfer of funds will be an important ball of oxygen for both. And the more you dilate the request of the Spanish courts of a suplicatorio —the permission of the Parliament— and the subsequent vote to remove the immunity, the greater will be their income to make the bulb check of the political battle and legal who are fighting on the outside.

The bill of the so-called House of the Republic of Waterloo, where Puigdemont receives a large part of the political class independence, and converted into a place of pilgrimage for the faithful, exceeds four thousand euros a month; the multiple fronts open court they have been forced to hire a team of several lawyers —Paul Bekaert ensures that charges 125 euros per hour for their services—; the fear of being the object of an attack —"if you have placed a beacon of GPS under my car, maybe one day will be an explosive," writes Puigdemont in a recent book referring to the CNI— has led it to be equipped with an escort, and the work of internationalization of the procés has required offsets for several european countries, not always with a status of invited.

even Though the opacity has been the keynote in what their funding sources are concerned, Puigdemont and Comín have insisted that this structure is supported by donations, among others, of the registrants to the Council per the Republic, of around 85,000 at a rate of a minimum of ten euros of contribution each one. Their number is far from the million accessions that were waiting in a first moment, but they are enough to provide a valuable low-cost mattress. Now, with the return of both to the political arena, official more than two years after their arrival in Belgium, all indicate that it will substantially increase its thickness.

No public income over the past year and a half

The arrival of Carles Puigdemont in Strasbourg will allow you to return to receive a salary to the public after a year and a half. The leader of Junts per Catalunya resigned to collect her pension as a former president of Catalonia in November 2017, the estimate that, in spite of being in Belgium, he remained the legitimate president. Yes received the deputy a few months of 2018, but in July of that year, the Parliament withdrew the salary of the parliamentarians suspended by the Supreme Court, including was.

Date Of Update: 10 January 2020, 01:00