"We won't back down." With these words, Catalan president Quim Torra has let it be known that he refuses to abide by the latest ruling from the Spanish Supreme Court, which decided this Thursday to uphold the Electoral Commission's decision stripping him of his status as a member of parliament. In the latest development arising from the Catalan leader's refusal to remove a banner from the Catalan government palace last year and his subsequent court conviction for disobedience, Torra has reacted to the Supreme Court decision by insisting he is still a parliamentary deputy and president of the Catalan government. This, he said, was decided by Parliament in the 2018 investiture session and validated by a resolution passed by the Barcelona chamber on January 4th. "Nothing has changed and we won't back down," he affirmed from Girona, where he was inspecting the damage from Storm Glòria that has caused havoc across much of Catalonia in the last few days.
He also recalled in a brief institutional statement that the Catalan Parliament's Bureau had reaffirmed his status as an MP at a meeting last week, based on a report by the parliamentary legal counsel. The legal argument given was that Spain's Central Electoral Commission was not competent to take the action it did, voting on January 3rd to execute Torra's sentence of disqualification from office even while an appeal was still pending. Furthermore, argued the lawyers, the condition of MP was not essential for Torra to continue as president.
Earlier this Thursday, the disputes chamber of the Supreme Court issued its decision to maintain the disqualification of Torra as ruled by the Electoral Commission, rejecting Torra's request to suspend this until his appeal had been heard and contradicting the view of the public prosecution service. The prosecutor had argued the need for the "prudent and balanced preservation of the public interest", which could suffer "contradictory effects" as a result of the electoral body's decision, and therefore did not oppose the injunction requested by the Catalan president.
To dismiss Torra's requested injunction, the Supreme Court asserted that the arguments used by his defence "relate mainly to the substance of the appeal," which has yet to be decided. On the other hand, the judges say, the electoral body's ruling "does not create an irreversible situation" and that agreeing to its precautionary suspension "would mean that valid legal precepts would be prevented from taking effect".
This decision comes two weeks after the same chamber of the Supreme Court had already rejected the "emergency" injunction presented by the head of the Catalan executive. However, the court has not yet ruled on the merits of the case, and will take months to do so. All this after the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) sentenced Torra to 18 months of disqualification from office holding last December, for having failed to take down a banner calling for "Freedom for the political prisoners" during an election period. The initiative to remove Torra from presidential office before his appeal was heard was taken by Spain's right wing opposition parties PP, Cs and Vox, who submitted a legal argument to the electoral body calling for immediate action on the court sentence.