⁍ Spain’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling barring Catalan leader Quim Torra from public office for 18 months.

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⁍ Torra said he would appeal the sentence, which he described as a politically motivated move to overthrow the Catalan government.

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⁍ The ruling took effect as soon as Torra was officially notified of it, meaning Catalan deputy leader Pere Aragones is expected to become acting head.

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– The leader of Catalonia says new elections will be held in the Spanish region after the country’s Supreme Court upheld a decision to bar him from office for 18 months. Quim Torra, who has been leader of the northeastern region since 2015, says he plans to appeal the ruling, which he calls an attempt to overthrow his government, reports the AP. Torra was banned from running for office over his refusal to remove a banner supporting jailed separatists from the facade of his government palace. The court said the banner case was not about Torra’s freedom of expression, but his defiance of a constitutional body. Torra has defended himself on grounds of freedom of expression, but the court said its ruling encompassed not personal rights but defiance of a constitutional body. Several hundred people marched in central Barcelona against the ruling, with some protesters throwing headless pigs at police officers outside the central government’s delegation in Barcelona, reports Reuters. A small group later entered the park—which had its main gates locked—where the Catalan parliament is located and threw stones at the police. “Since they cannot beat us, they have to repress people in an outrageous way,” a 58-year-old high school teacher, said of the Supreme Court judges, calling for civil disobedience protests in the coming weeks. Catalonia’s separatist drive has dominated Spanish politics for several years, particularly since the regional assembly made a unilateral declaration of independence in October 2017 following a referendum declared illegal by judges. “Once more, the Spanish state interferes in our democratic institutions,” said predecessor Carles Puigdemont, who is in self-imposed exile in Belgium.