The Contentious-Administrative Court number 2 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has provisionally suspended the expulsion of Cabildo de Lanzarote councilor Juan Manuel Sosa as a member of the Nationalist Group of the corporation, as well as his consideration as non-attached.
In an order notified this Friday and to which EFE has had access, the Court upholds the precautionary measures requested in their day by councilor Juan Manuel Sosa for the suspension of his expulsion from the Nationalist political group in the Cabildo de Lanzarote (agreed by the councilors of the Canarian Coalition) and his consideration as a non-attached councilor, "with the limitations that derive from his economic and political rights".
The Plenary of the Cabildo de Lanzarote on January 14 took note of the agreement adopted by the other councilors of the Group in that corporation (all of them members of the Canarian Coalition) to expel Juan Manuel Sosa (member of the San Borondón political party, which contested the elections on the list of the Canarian Coalition after an electoral agreement reached between both parties).
Sosa went from that moment to be considered a non-attached councilor and, therefore, legal restrictions of political and economic rights were applied to him.
Some months ago and after disagreements arose with several members of the CC group, Sosa decided to join the government group of the Cabildo, led by the socialist María Dolores Corujo, thus preventing the possibility of presenting a motion of censure against the current president.
It was then that his former colleagues from the Nationalist Group of the Cabildo, led by the former president of the Corporation Pedro San Ginés, decided on his expulsion, then initiating efforts to achieve the resignation of the councilor, the only formula to facilitate the presentation of a motion of censure against the current socialist president of the Cabildo.
After being expelled from the Nationalist Group and becoming a non-attached councilor, Juan Manuel Sosa filed an appeal for protection of fundamental rights before the Contentious-Administrative Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in which he requested the adoption of precautionary measures consisting of the suspension of his expulsion and his passage to the condition of non-attached, which have been estimated by the Court in the resolution that has just been issued.
"Affectation of an essential right"
In the grounds for its decision, the court argues that "the need for the process to obtain reason should not become damage for the one who has the reason", in such a way that whoever acts alleging legal or constitutional principles that are apparently founded, exercises a "good right" that must prevail over whoever only relies on regulatory precepts or merely conjunctural reasons, all this in a provisional assessment, and without prejudice to what is declared in its day in the main proceedings".
According to the judicial order, in the present case there is "the possible affectation of a right as essential as the one contained in art 23.1 of the Spanish Constitution, as well as the irreparability of the damage that the administration itself recognizes, and the fact that the general interests would not be seriously damaged", so "it is appropriate to accede to the measure and agree to the interested suspension".
The Public Prosecutor's Office was in favor of the precautionary measures requested by Juan Manuel Sosa and in its report alleged that "the precautionary measure would be justified by the concurrence of the 'periculum in mora' or delay due to procedural delay and its consequences, which could make the result of the judicial pronouncement unfeasible, in case of being estimative, and the loss of rights" of the councilor.
Criminal investigation of San Ginés
The Provincial Court of Las Palmas ordered a few weeks ago the Investigating Court number 2 of Arrecife to investigate the former president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote Pedro San Ginés, of CC, for allegedly coercing councilor Juan Manuel Sosa to resign and facilitate his return to the government.
According to the complaint filed by Sosa on May 13, San Ginés would have ordered him to renounce his position as councilor of the Cabildo Insular de Lanzarote, threatening him with the filing of a lawsuit for continuing to collect his salary as spokesman for the Canarian Coalition.
According to the account made by Sosa in court, San Ginés summoned him to his house in Arrecife, where he showed him on a laptop the text of the lawsuit that ended with the request for up to six years in prison and the requirement to repay the 85,000 euros allegedly collected unduly, an extreme that has been repeatedly denied by the Cabildo de Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands.
