The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, announced on Wednesday the launch of the second procedure to lift the parliamentary immunity of the Se Acabó La Fiesta (SALF) MP, Luis Pérez, better known as alvise. The new trial responds to the Spanish Supreme Court’s request to investigate him for alleged irregular financing of his party, as parliamentary sources confirmed to EL PAÍS.
The announcement was made by Metsola at the beginning of the plenary session of the European Parliament which this time is held in Brussels, but the Maltese did not publicly reveal which of the cases open to the Spanish MPs this new process is now starting. At the end of October, Metsola initiated a first revocation of immunity at the request of the “competent” Spanish authorities, a case which is currently in the hands of the Legal Affairs Commission, where this second case will now also arrive.
The internal process is long and, according to sources close to the timetable, in the case of alvise —the commission currently has several requests for the lifting of parliamentary immunity in its hands—the first procedure has just started and the case has been assigned to one of the MEPs who are members of the Legal Affairs Office. This parliamentary body can “request any information or explanation it deems necessary,” according to the European Parliament website. Furthermore, in this case there is the possibility that a hearing will take place with the interested party Alvise, for it to be explained. You can also present documentation or evidence in your defense.
In an airtight parliamentary procedure, to avoid any leak of information that could call into question the decision in generally highly politicized cases, the commission’s work concludes with a recommendation – also deliberated behind closed doors – which must be voted on in the plenary session, where it is adopted by a simple majority.
The Supreme Court has a total of four open cases alvise and, according to the rules of the European Parliament, each of them requires an individual request for waiver of immunity which must go through the same parliamentary process in Brussels as the two already submitted. According to parliamentary sources, they are generally processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Last July, the Criminal Chamber of the High Court sought a request to investigate the ultra leader for alleged online harassment of Valencia’s hate crimes prosecutor, Susana Gisbert. This first request was followed by another in October to investigate alviseon charges of having received 100,000 euros from a businessman to finance the campaign of his electoral group, SALF, in the last European elections.
In addition to these cases, the Supreme Court is investigating the MEP for having disseminated a fake covid test of the President of the Generalitat and former Minister of Health Salvador Illa, as well as for alleged crimes of revealing secrets and harassment against Diego Solier and Nora Junco. These are the two MEPs who ran with him in the 2024 European elections, even though last May they announced their break with whoever their leader was and, after denouncing attempts at “defamation, coercion or blackmail” by Pérez, they ended up denouncing the still MP. While alvise Remaining unrelated to any political family in Brussels, Solier and Junco have sat, since the end of last year (even before making their break with the SALF official) in Giorgia Meloni’s ultra group of Reformists and Conservatives (ECR).
