The president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, has confirmed he will present an appeal to Spain's Supreme Court against the decision by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia to ban him from holding public office for eighteen months.

He also said he will call for a preliminary question to be submitted to the Court of Justice of the European Union: "My confidence in the Spanish justice system is nil after having contemplated the political trial held in the Supreme Court which has led to 100 years of imprisonment for members of the [Catalan] government," he said. Also today, that EU court had given its verdict on a preliminary question in the case of Oriol Junqueras.

"Today we've seen how justice is done from Europe", said Torra from the Gothic gallery of the Catalan government palace in Barcelona. He said the only objective was to ban him from holding public office and that "this justice system isn't blind or impartial, rather partisan and profoundly unjust".

"A court formed by three people devoid of the most basic impartiality, in a process full of irregularities, promoted by a public prosecution service turned into a guarantor of the Spanish government's interests, aims to change a president elected by the representatives of millions of Catalans," he said.

"The repression hasn't stopped", he said, arguing that his sentence was predictable: "We're facing political courts which try [people] for political motivations. There's no justice when it's about trying independence supporters."

He said he won't be banned from office by a court "with political motivations", that only the Catalan Parliament can do that. He asked the groups in that Parliament to express their support for him if they see fit.

Torra also responded to the European court's verdict on Junqueras, calling for his trial to be voided, the release of the former vice-president and his fellow prisoners, and the return of the exiles.