Following the designation by the Parliament of the Canary Islands of Pedro San Ginés as senator for the Autonomous Community, the PSOE has registered a proposal to reform the Regulations of the Parliament of the Canary Islands to prevent the appointment of autonomous senators with open judicial proceedings and avoid their immunity.
Specifically, the Socialist Group has proposed the modification of Article 205 of the Regulations of the Parliament of the Canary Islands by adding a new section 4, which establishes that those persons against whom a formal accusation has already been made by the Public Prosecutor's Office in criminal proceedings for a crime of a public nature may not be designated as autonomous senators by the Plenary of the House.
The spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group, Sebastián Franquis, recalls that the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands has eliminated since 2018 the so-called immunities of both deputies of the Parliament of the Canary Islands (article 40), as well as of the members of the Government of the Canary Islands (article 51), thus guaranteeing effective judicial protection and providing greater efficiency to the criminal procedure.
Franquis stresses that the Canary Islands is the only autonomous community that has eliminated immunity in this sense, and that his proposal is in accordance with this exemplary nature. "There are no privileges before the law, and the designation of autonomous senators with open judicial proceedings contradicts the principles of equality, is a figure that promotes citizen inequality and supports disbelief in public office."
In this way, he points out that the socialists aim to "prevent" the designation of autonomous senators from "being used" by certain political parties for judicial immunity to people from their formation with open judicial proceedings, and that they can only be prosecuted before the Supreme Court, as established in Article 73.1 of the Spanish Constitution, which entrusts cases in which senators are affected to the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court.
In addition, he denounces the use of this figure "repeatedly" by Coalición Canaria (CC), especially since 2018 when the Statute of Autonomy eliminated it, as has already happened with the designation as autonomous senators of representatives judicially processed, such as Miguel Zerolo, Fernando Clavijo and Pedro San Ginés, the latter in this XI Legislature.
