The Commission of the Statute of the Deputy of the Congress is scheduled this Thursday to set the calendar for the processing of the request for a waiver submitted by the Supreme Court in order to investigate the deputy of Sumar Félix Alonso Cantorné, reported for actions linked to his time as mayor of Altafulla (Tarragona).
Félix Alonso voluntarily appeared before the Supreme Court on June 15, where he defended "the legitimacy of the contracts" and denied having incurred in irregularities. A month later, on July 14, the High Court sent the formal request for a waiver to Congress so that his immunity could be suspended and the investigation could continue for an alleged crime of administrative prevarication related to the awarding of public contracts when he was a councilor.
The investigating magistrate states in his report that "there are indications that during the period" in which Alonso was mayor of Altafulla "and with his participation," public awards were made using minor contracts. In the same document, he details that "the figure of the minor contract was used to carry out contracts without adhering to the specific legislation on public contracting."
The Board of Congress, chaired by the socialist Francina Armengol, agreed at the end of July to process the waiver and sent it to the Commission of the Statute of the Deputy, which this Thursday will begin the study of the file and organize the next steps of the procedure.
Internal processing and deadlines behind closed doors
This body, headed by the 'popular' Manuel Cobo and made up of a representative from each parliamentary group, holds all its meetings behind closed doors. According to the Chamber's Regulations, it has a maximum of 30 working days to submit a proposal regarding the waiver. During that period, it must listen to Félix Alonso, who may intervene personally or submit written allegations on the date determined by the commission itself.
Once its work is concluded, the commission will send its opinion to the Plenary of Congress, which will be responsible for making the final decision. In previous occasions, the Commission of the Statute of the Deputy has resolved this procedure in about two weeks.
The debate and the voting of the requests in the Plenary also take place behind closed doors, without publicity and without dissemination of the content of the interventions. The deputies are not subject to voting discipline, as the voting is secret and only the final result is made public.
In the eight days following the agreement of the Plenary on the granting or denial of the requested authorization, the president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, must formally communicate the decision to the judicial authority, reminding them of their obligation to inform the Chamber of the proceedings and judgments that are issued and directly affect the deputy.
If the Congress does not express itself within a period of sixty calendar days, counted in session period from the day after the receipt of the request, it will be understood that the authorization has been denied.
A request with precedents in the legislature
The case of Alonso Cantorné constitutes the second request being processed in the current legislature. The previous one was approved in January 2025 and affected the former minister and former secretary of Organization of the PSOE José Luis Ábalos, whom the Supreme Court intended to investigate for alleged irregularities in the purchase of sanitary material during the pandemic. Finally, the High Court imposed a sentence of 24 years in prison for his role in the so-called 'mask case'.
To date, the Congress has authorized 34 requests and has rejected 14 (two of them referring to the same parliamentarian). The last denial dates back to 1988 and was related to a lawsuit for the right to honor in which the protagonists were the former socialist minister José Barrionuevo and the brother of an ETA member (the now repentant Soares Gamboa), following the inclusion of their photographs in posters from the Ministry of the Interior.
In the previous legislature, the Lower House gave the green light to the Supreme Court to investigate the former PP deputy Alberto Casero for alleged crimes of prevarication and embezzlement linked to contracts signed when he was mayor of Trujillo (Cáceres); and to the former president of Junts Laura Borrás, subsequently convicted for splitting contracts for the benefit of a friend when she directed the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC) and recently pardoned by the Government of PSOE and Sumar.
Likewise, the request was granted to investigate Alberto Rodríguez, then a deputy of Podemos, who was convicted for having kicked a police officer during a demonstration prior to his parliamentary stage. The Supreme Court imposed a fine and disqualification from running for elections, which resulted in the loss of his seat, although the Constitutional Court later annulled the withdrawal of the mandate, when it was no longer possible for his reinstatement.
In previous legislatures, it was also authorized to judge three deputies of the PP --Vicente Ferrer, Arsenio Pacheco, and Nacho Uriarte-- for testing positive in breathalyzer controls while driving, and it was allowed to investigate the 'popular' Jesús Merino for the 'Gürtel case'. The procedure against the former socialist councilor José Antonio Viera, investigated for the ERE, was left incomplete due to his resignation.
Among the most relevant requests granted are those of the former socialist minister José Barrionuevo for the 'GAL case' and those of the deputies of Herri Batasuna Jon Idígoras, Francisco Letamendía, and Antxón Ibarguren for the incidents that occurred in 1981 at the Casa de Juntas of Guernica, where several members of that formation carried out protests during an event presided over by the Kings.