Non-face investitures Commentary on the Constitutional Court’s Judgment 19/2019, of February 12. Challenge procedure for self-governing communities’ provisions and resolutions num. 492- 2018. (BOE num. 67, of March 19, 2019)

Abstract

This judgment summarizes the notes of the parliamentary investiture, as a very personal and face-to-face act. It is personal, because the candidate can only act for himself, not through third parties; it is face-to-face, because the parliamentary debate can only take place at the seat of Parliament. Only when the actors share the same scenario, does arise the communication between them, the debate, sharing gestures and expressions. The simple image of the
person who speaks many kilometers away does not generate debate, just simple transmission of the message. Such is the peculiarity of the parliamentary debate, which requires human contact, irreplaceable at the moment.
The Court thus emphasizes the importance of the communicative process that must be given in the investiture. A debate, without a candidate present, breaks the structure of parliamentary communication, which must always be based on the idea that the participants are gathered in the same place, or if it is preferred to say otherwise, the important thing now is the act as experience: the experience of being together in the same time and place.