The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clashes erupt as Spain’s Cabinet holds meeting
BARCELONA — Thousands of pro-independence protesters angry about Spain’s Cabinet holding a meeting in Catalonia blocked roads across the region Friday and clashed with anti-riot police in its capital.
A dozen protesters were arrested, and scores were injured during the clashes, the regional Mossos d’Esquadra police said after the meeting in Barcelona finished.
Spain’s center-left government announced a series of gestures, including steps to reverse the conviction of Catalan president Lluis Companys — who executed in 1940 after his arrest by the German Nazis in France and handed over to dictator Gen. Francisco Franco — and infrastructure works for the northeastern region, along with the highest increase in the national minimum wage in four decades.
But the most radical protesters seemed unimpressed, confronting police in antiriot gear in the streets of Barcelona, angry at Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s presence in the city.
The Catalan regional government, formed by a coalition of pro-secession parties, had called on people to protest peacefully despite an agreement with central authorities to find a way out of the political crisis that has festered since Catalonia’s failed secession attempt last year.
After their encounter on Thursday — the second since both took power earlier this year — Sanchez and Catalan President Quim Torra issued a joint statement calling for dialogue to settle the conflict over the future of Catalonia.
Sanchez, who inherited the Catalan crisis when he toppled his conservative predecessor in June, made mending relations with the prosperous region one of his priorities. But his minority government —the Socialists only control a quarter of the parliament’s lower house — faces fierce opposition by more conservative groups urging a stronger hand on Catalonia or early elections.
Despite Thursday’s apparent progress, distrust prevailed on Friday. Security in the prosperous northeastern region, normally in the hands of the Catalan police, was reinforced with hundreds of anti-riot officers sent by Spain’s national police forces.
“It is a provocation,” said Oriol Benet, a 24-yearold pharmacist who joined others marching near the headquarters of the National Police in Barcelona.
Spanish television broadcast Sanchez’s walk from his hotel to the location of the meeting down streets heavily guarded by police.
Meters away a crowd of mostly young protesters jeered. Larger clashes erupted around midday.
The Mossos police force said that 43 people, including 28 agents, were injured and that one of the 12 protesters arrested for public order offenses was carrying inflammable material. A TV journalist was also punched to the floor by some protesters, the Intereconomia channel showed in online video.
Sanchez had presented the meeting in Barcelona as “a way of showing affection to Catalonia.”