Spain’s top court rejects appeal by former Catalan president

On Wednesday, Spain’s Constitutional Court rejected former Catalan president Quim Torra’s appeal against the electoral board’s decision to disqualify him for displaying signs in solidarity with the political prisoners and exiles at the Government’s headquarter during an electoral period in 2019.

Torra was removed from office in September 2020 by Spain’s Supreme Court after it upheld Catalonia’s High Court ruling from December 2019 and a subsequent electoral board decision. The president was tried for failing to comply with an electoral board order to remove symbols deemed “partisan” on time in the run-up to the Spanish general election at the end of April 2019.

Torra initially refused, before eventually replacing the banner for one defending freedom of speech, but not until after the deadline he was given to remove the yellow ribbon banner had passed. In court, the president argued that the electoral board “had no right to issue an order” for him to remove the banner.

Torra went on to admit in court that he had “disobeyed” Spain’s electoral authority by failing to remove the symbols, but added that “complying with an illegal order was impossible.” He denied that the expression ‘political prisoners’ that featured on the banner was partisan, arguing that “it is a way of speaking permitted by freedom of speech.”