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Deposed head of government: Quim Torra together with numerous demonstrators in Barcelona
Photo: Emilio Morenatti / AP
In the middle of the corona crisis, the Catalonia conflict could reignite in Spain.
Late on Monday evening, thousands of people across the region protested against the removal of their Prime Minister Quim Torra by the Spanish judiciary.
According to media reports, 500 to 1000 people gathered in Barcelona, among other places, to march to Ciutadella Park in front of the regional parliament.
They pelted police officers with firecrackers, garbage bags, stones and also with pigs' heads.
They also set dumpsters on fire.
According to the information, the spontaneous demonstration broke up around 11 p.m.
There were also protests in other parts of Catalonia.
The Spanish judiciary had previously deposed Prime Minister Torra for disobedience.
The Spanish Supreme Court (TSJ) confirmed a corresponding judgment by the Catalan Higher Regional Court last December in Madrid, according to which Torra may not hold public office for a year and a half.
The background is a legal dispute from last year: the 57-year-old refused to remove symbols of the independence movement from his government's seat in Barcelona and other public buildings before the Spanish parliamentary elections on April 28, 2019, although the electoral authority had ordered this.
Separatist parties and organizations call for protest
He was then convicted of "disobedience" and deposed.
Torra had appealed against it and was allowed to keep his position for the duration of the proceedings.
The TSJ has now unanimously confirmed the judgment.
Torra's refusal to have a "separatist" banner removed "repeatedly and stubbornly" disregarded an order from the electoral authority, the judges said.
The judgment will take effect immediately, Torra must immediately hand over his office to his deputy, Pere Aragonès, it said.
In addition, Torra was fined € 30,000.
Observers fear that Torras' impeachment in the middle of the corona crisis and three years after the illegal independence referendum on October 1, 2017, will lead to a new and dangerous escalation of the Catalonia conflict.
Various separatist parties and organizations called for protests.
In Catalonia there is now great uncertainty, commented the Spanish state television broadcaster "RTVE".
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asc / dpa
