He was backed by 64 of the 133 lawmakers who voted, compared with 65 votes against and 4 abstentions, speaker Roger Torrent said Thursday in a televised session in Barcelona. He and other secessionist leaders are due to appear before the Supreme Court on Friday morning for the opening of a new phase in the investigation which leads to a trial. It is not clear whether Turull, who is free to attend parliamentary sessions and to be voted in, would be able to become the next president of the region because the central government has made it clear it would stop any candidate who has taken part to the secessionist drive. Jordi Turull is the third candidate proposed by pro-independence Catalan lawmakers since a December election in the region, and his possible election brought political tensions in Spain to a head once more. The central government has been running Catalonia from Madrid since snatching away Catalonia's regional powers over the October breakaway vote, which courts have ruled unconstitutional.
Jordi Turull i Negre, ex-member of the dismissed regional government, who was imprisoned amid sedition and under investigation due to his connection in a corruption scandal involving CiU, is named candidate by the President of Catalan Parliament in a investiture for Thursday, March 22.