Violence flares in Barcelona protests over jailed separatists
CENTRAL Barcelona was brought to a standstill yesterday as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched into the city to reject a Spanish court’s decision to jail nine Catalan separatist leaders.
Carrying banners demanding “No more repression!” and giant “Estelada” independence flags, five columns of the so-called “freedom march” converged on Catalonia’s capital as a oneday general strike was held across the region. Barcelona’s police force said that 525,000 people joined the demonstration in response to the politicians being jailed for up to 13 years for the crime of sedition after organising October 2017’s independence referendum.
A smaller march organised by the radical separatist group Committees in Defence of the Republic also entered Barcelona yesterday.
The city saw a third night of violence on Thursday, with clashes between independence supporters and far-right Spanish nationalist groups who held their own demonstration.
Following a protest by striking students in Barcelona at midday yesterday, several arrests were made after bottles were thrown at the city’s main national police headquarters.
“The right to demonstrate must be exercised in a totally peaceful manner,” warned Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, speaking in Brussels where he was attending the EU leaders’ summit. While the vast majority of proindependence demonstrations have been peaceful, Spain’s security forces admit they are struggling to confront a new threat from radical protesters using flaming barricades.
Sources from Catalonia’s Mossos d’esquadra police force said yesterday that despite more than 100 arrests, they believe there are around 500 radicals who act as organisers, with a further 1,500 protesters ready to carry out their orders. Spanish authorities also believe that anti-capitalist activists from other European countries are offering assistance to the Catalan protesters.
Fernando Grande-marlaska, the Spanish interior minister, said police were still investigating who is behind the so-called Tsunami Democràtic platform that called on independence supporters to close Barcelona’s airport on Monday via the Telegram app. A judge in Madrid yesterday ordered Spanish internet and telecoms operators to block any of Tsunami Democràtic’s websites and social media accounts.
Carles Puigdemont, the self-exiled former president of the region, said he did not know who was organising the platform in response to claims it was created with the knowledge of Catalan politicians.
Some 4,000 protesters shut down the city’s Sagrada Familia cathedral yesterday. It was also confirmed yesterday that the Barcelona-real Madrid La Liga match on Oct 26 will be played in December due to the security risk.