Once again, Spain's highest judges have struck a blow and removed the executive Catalan President Quim Torra from office, having already ensured in previous years that the legitimate Catalan President Carles Puigdemont was unable to exercise his office. The Spanish Supreme Court decided unanimously in the final instance to deprive Quim Torra of the right to stand as a candidate for a year and a half for «disobedience» and to impose a fine of 30,000 euros.
Immediately after his election in July 2018, the Catalan Executive President had a banner with the words «Llibertat presos polítics i exiliats / Free Political Prisoners and Exiles» and a yellow solidarity ribbon affixed to the Palace of the Generalitat de Catalunya in Barcelona, which could in no way be attributed to any particular party, but rather exercised in a general way the fundamental and human right to freedom of expression guaranteed in Spain's constitution and promoted solidarity with all political prisoners and exiled persons throughout the world. When he was asked by a subordinate authority, the Central Electoral Commission, to remove this banner, he initially did not comply with this request and invoked the fundamental right to freedom of expression. After much to and fro, a new banner was then hung up on 27 September 2019 with the inscription «Llibertat d'Opinió i d'Expressió — Article 19 de la Declaració Universal dels Drets Humans» («Freedom of Opinion and Expression — Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights»).
Following a first-instance ruling against him by the Supreme Court of Catalonia on 19 September 2019, Quim Torra's mandate as a member of the Catalan Parliament was revoked on 27 January 2020. A second case against Quim Torra is currently (in September 2020) before the Supreme Court of Catalonia at first instance. Quim Torra made it publicly clear what he thought of this farce and of what he considered to be the ruling already established.
The removal of a Catalan President by a Spanish court raises several legal questions:
As President of Catalonia, was Quim Torra bound by an order of a subordinate authority?
Why, for reasons of neutrality in an election campaign, should he have been obliged to abstain from a general expression of solidarity with political prisoners and exiled persons throughout the world, which, moreover, could not be attributed to any particular party?
Is the principle of proportionality respected when the President of Catalonia is removed from office by a subordinate authority on the grounds of failure to comply with an order contrary to Spanish constitutional law and imperative international law?
Does a one-and-a-half year suspension of the right to stand as a candidate for such a minor matter not only at Spanish but also at European level clearly infringe not only European law but also, in particular, the European Convention on Human Rights?
How will the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg decide one day?
How is it possible that three of the judges at Spain's Supreme Court, who sent blameless Catalan politicians to prison for many years without a factual legal basis in Spanish criminal law in a criminal case which violated the Spanish legal system and partly violated human rights, were now also allowed to decide whether a declaration of solidarity by the Catalan President with political prisoners should lead to his deposition? Is there no concern of bias in Spain?
The Catalan national minority in Spain has long suffered unprecedented oppression, persecution and repression. The recent attack by the Spanish critics on their elected highest representative is not an expression of the rule of law, but a renewed attempt by a judiciary which is by no means neutral but operates with political aims to restrict the rights of the Catalan people and prevent them from exercising their human right to self-determination.
And Europe remains silent and watches!