The Supreme Court issued an order recalling that public administrations’ “duty of objectivity and neutrality” prevents the “privatization of public spaces for general use by occupying them with elements that could constitute a partisan option”. The March 15 resolution bans the “even casual use of unofficial flags and symbols outside of buildings and public places.” The decision confirms – by not allowing the Catalan government to appeal – the judgment of the Supreme Court of Catalonia (TSJC) of April 28, 2021, which forced then-President Quim Torra to step away from the facade of the Palau de la Generalitat Poster in support of the prisoners of the Procés. The TSJC concluded that Torra acted “illegally” and for “partisan” purposes by unfurling a banner calling for the freedom of independence leaders convicted of sedition. The banner called them “political prisoners”.
The Supreme Court had on previous occasions vetoed the display of partisan symbols in public buildings, such as B. the Estelada flag (independence flag), which many Catalan city councilors flew before and after the process, but almost all pronouncements were the result of decisions of the electoral board therefore limited to electoral periods. The court had expressly rejected the display of unofficial flags in public buildings, whether during or outside the electoral period, obliging the institutions to remain neutral, a case law on which the Supreme Court now bases its decision not to allow Torra’s appeal against the decision of the Catalan court.
“We are faced with the application by the Trial Chamber of repeated and consolidated jurisprudence and constitutional doctrine, so we do not deem it necessary for that Chamber to make a fresh statement in this regard to confirm, qualify or correct it,” the court said in order of disallowing the appointment of the former Catalan president. And to arrive at this conclusion, adds the Supreme Court, it does not matter “the discrepancy that the Generalitat of Catalonia may maintain with the reasoning and decision of the judgment under appeal, since the expression of this discrepancy is by no means considered sufficient may be , solely to avoid justifying the need to qualify or correct the doctrine” of the Supreme Court.
Among other things, Torra claimed that the ban on displaying the poster in favor of the prisoners conflicted with freedom of expression, but the judges warn that there is also a wealth of doctrine that states “without any doubt” that “there is no way they The holders of this fundamental right are public institutions or their institutions”, but only individuals. “The act to which this case relates was carried out by the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia in his capacity as such, that is, as a public office, and according to the constitutional doctrine, his conduct It cannot She cannot from the point of view of taking into account a subjective fundamental right, but within the framework of the powers and limits laid down in the legal system.”
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