Boycotts shut roads, schools in Catalonia
BARCELONA, Spain — Highways were blocked, schools closed and much business halted across Catalonia Tuesday as workers and students joined strikes and took to the streets to protest the use of force by police that left hundreds injured during a disputed referendum on the region’s secession.
In the regional capital, Barcelona, where bus and subway services were affected, disoriented tourists scrambled to find open cafeterias to avoid the protests.
There were moments of tension when a handful of pickets forced the closure of shops that had remained open in the city’s famed Las Ramblas boulevard, but elsewhere the demonstrations were largely peaceful.
Several labor unions and grassroots pro-independence groups had urged workers throughout Catalonia to go on partial or full-day strikes after the referendum that the Spanish government had deemed illegal and invalid.
“People are angry, very angry,” said Josep Llavina, a 53year-old self-employed worker who had traveled to Barcelona from a nearby town to participate in the protest outside the regional offices of Spain’s National Police.
The building became a focal point for protesters, gathering thousands at midday who shouted that the police were an “occupying force” and urged Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to resign.
“They brought violence with them,” Llavina said. “They have beaten people who were holding their hands up. How can we not be outraged?”
In a televised address to the nation, King Felipe VI said that Catalan authorities have deliberately bent the law with “irresponsible conduct” and that the Spanish state needs to ensure constitutional order and the rule of law in Catalonia.
The king said that the bid by authorities in the northeastern region to push ahead with independence has “undermined coexistence” in Catalonia.
He said the state needs to ensure Spain’s constitutional order and the correct functioning of Catalan institutions and rule of law.
Catalan officials say that 90 percent of the 2.3 million people who voted Sunday were in favor of independence. But fewer than half of those eligible to vote turned out. The vote was boycotted by most of Spain’s national parties on grounds it was illegal and lacked basic guarantees, such as transparency, a proper census or an independent electoral governing body.