Sides meet over Catalan violence

ERUPTION: SCORES INJURED, ARRESTED IN PROTESTS

Rage at jailing of nine separatist leaders for failed independence bid.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez held emergency talks with opposition leaders yesterday about violent protests by separatists in Catalonia.

Scores of people have been hurt and dozens arrested in the past two nights of clashes between protesters and police in Barcelona and other Catalan cities.

Protesters are furious at the jailing of nine separatist leaders for their role in a failed 2017 independence bid that sparked a deep political crisis.

The convictions on Monday revived tensions in the wealthy northeastern region, split between Catalans loyal to Madrid and those who want it to break away from Spain.

In Barcelona on Tuesday night, police charged hundreds of masked demonstrators who threw projectiles and set garbage bins and cardboard boxes on fire.

Yesterday, thousands of protesters departed on foot along highways from five Catalan towns towards Barcelona.

They plan to gather there tomorrow, when unions have called a general strike in the region.

Sanchez received conservative opposition leader Pablo Casado of the Popular Party yesterday morning.

He was scheduled to meet later with the leaders of centre-right Ciudadanos and far-left Podemos.

He said he would “convey the government’s determination to guarantee security, with firmness, proportionality and unity.”

The separatist movement has said there will be no let-up in the protests. They erupted after the Supreme Court on Monday convicted 12 Catalan separatist leaders of sedition over the 2017 referendum and short-lived declaration of independence.

The court handed prison sentences of between nine and 13 years to nine of them and fines to the other three.

Police arrested 29 people in the province of Barcelona, 14 in Tarragona province and eight in Lleida, Spain’s interior ministry said.

Officials said 125 people were injured in the protests, including 72 police officers, some with broken bones.

The violent protests marked a break with the mainly peaceful pro-independence rallies in Catalonia since the separatist movement gained momentum nearly a decade ago.

“We have embarked on a road of no return,” the Committees for the Defence of the Republic, a radical separatist movement, tweeted.