Spain was thrown into turmoil on Thursday by court rulings that could undermine Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s hopes of forming a new government and force fresh
elections in the region of Catalonia.
In a potentially stinging reversal for Spanish justice authorities, the European Union’s top court ruled that a former Catalán official serving a
prison sentence for his role in a banned independence
referendum two years ago had the right to parliamentary immunity when he was on trial.
A court in
Spain, meanwhile, found that Catalonia’s current president, Quim Torra, is unfit to hold office for 18 months for disobeying the country’s electoral board, a decision likely to lead to more elections in a region riven by protests.