The Catalan separatist leader Quim Torra is to be suspended from office for disobedience, Spain's Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
The Supreme Court unanimously confirmed a ruling by the Catalan regional court from last year that Torra had appealed, which mandates that the 57-year-old cannot hold public office for 18 months.
Torra is also to pay a fine of 30,000 euros and has to transfer his position as regional prime minister to his deputy, Pere Aragones.
Media reports estimated that this would happen in the next week. Aragones is then expected to call new elections for early 2021.
Torra had refused to take down symbols and posters of the Catalan independence movement from his office and other public buildings before the parliamentary elections last year, defying instructions by the electoral commission.
Renewed tensions
Some of the posters demanded the release of jailed separatists, calling them "political prisoners."
Observers fear the court ruling may trigger renewed tensions in the conflict over Catalonia's independence, as it comes in the middle of the pandemic and on the third anniversary of an illegal independence referendum.
