Violence
erupts after pro-Catalan general strike in Barcelona
Protesters
set fire to bins and chant ‘The streets will always be ours’ in fifth night of
rioting
Stephen
Burgen in Barcelona and Sam Jones in Madrid
Fri 18 Oct
2019 18.13 BSTFirst published on Fri 18 Oct 2019 12.57 BST
Catalonia
suffered a fifth consecutive night of rioting on Friday after violence erupted
in Barcelona following a peaceful demonstration attended by more than 500,000
people in protest at the heavy sentences handed down to Catalan politicians and
activists.
There were
disturbances and police charges on Via Laietana near the headquarters of the
Spanish national police during Friday afternoon but, no sooner had the
demonstration begun to disperse at 6.30pm than rioting broke out around Plaça
Urquinaona in the city centre.
Black smoke
rose 10 metres above the city as protesters set fire to rubbish bins and a
newspaper kiosk. Thousands gathered in the surrounding streets chanting: “The
streets will always be ours!”
Four hours
after the first skirmishes, Via Laietana was a battleground strewn with rubble.
Police struggled to control the situation, firing rubber bullets, teargas and
later in the night, a water cannon was deployed against demonstrators for first
time since it was bought from Israel in 1994.
Demonstrators
dispersed into the adjoining streets where they set up barricades and fought
cat-and-mouse battles with the police. At least 35 people were treated for
injuries and there were 10 arrests.
The Spanish
government said a group of about 400 protesters was attacking police and warned
anyone engaged in similar acts that they faced six-year prison terms.
Authorities
announced late on Friday that 207 officers had been injured in the unrest.
Nearly 800 bins were set on fire and 107 police vehicles were damaged.
The
escalating violence came at the end of a general strike and amid significant
disruption caused by the huge and peaceful marches.
According
to Barcelona police, about 525,000 people congregated in the city, many of them
having marched there from around Catalonia. Earlier, marchers entering
Barcelona found themselves pelted with stones as they passed through the
working-class neighbourhood of Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
Their
presence brought the city to a standstill before a huge demonstration began at
5pm local time. The entrance to the Catalan capital’s most famous landmark –
the Sagrada Familia church – was blocked by pro-independence protesters and 57
flights were cancelled at Barcelona-El Prat airport.
On Friday
morning, the Spanish football federation announced that the Barcelona-Real
Madrid game due to be played in the Catalan capital next weekend had been
postponed because of the unrest.
Meanwhile,
a judge at Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, ordered
police to shut down the website and social media accounts of Tsunami
Democràtic, the pro-independence organisation that has used apps to coordinate
and control protests. The group was behind Monday’s attempts to occupy
Barcelona airport. The shutdown left many protesters milling aimlessly in the
absence of instructions.
Peaceful
protests, which have long been the hallmark of the pro-independence movement,
have been eclipsed this week by violent unrest and running battles between
protesters and police.
Friday’s
violence surpassed that seen on Thursday, when pro-independence supporters
clashed with police and rightwing groups in skirmishes that lasted into the
early hours.
After
another large demonstration broke up, protesters fought police, throwing stones
and at least one petrol bomb in an apparent attempt to reach the seat of the
Spanish government in the city. A clothing shop was set on fire and a bank
vandalised.
One
pro-independence protester was badly beaten by a group of rightwing supporters
while once again the streets were acrid with the smell of bonfires of burning
rubbish. Numerous injuries were reported.
The supreme
court’s decision to jail the nine leaders for sedition and misuse of public
funds over their roles in the failed push for independence has provoked uproar
among many Catalans.
Among those
taking part in the march was Anna Parella, a hospital worker from the coastal
town of Calella. She had joined the march with colleagues to call for
independence and the release of the jailed leaders.
“A lot of people
have joined us as we’ve gone along and the mood is really nice and festive,”
said Parella.
She said
the marchers were all peaceful but added that some people had grown sick of the
situation and begun to go about things the wrong way. “I’m against the violence
and we can’t have people starting to think we’re all violent,” she said. “Our
calls will lose their force if they do.”
Also on
Friday, Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president who led the failed bid
for independence two years ago, handed himself in to judicial authorities in
Belgium in response to the reactivation of an international arrest warrant
against him this week. His extradition hearing has been scheduled for 29
October.
Catalonia’s
pro-independence regional president, Quim Torra, has been criticised for being
slow to condemn the violence – and for calling for civil disobedience while
sending in Catalan riot police to restore order.
Speaking on
Friday morning, Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said 16
people had been arrested overnight and 10 police officers injured. He repeated
the government’s assertion that while people had a right to protest, any
violence would be dealt with firmly.
Asked about
reports that violent groups from the Basque country, France and Germany were
planning to travel to Catalonia to take part in any forthcoming disturbances,
he said such participation had already been anticipated by the authorities.
“We know
that these kinds of radical, violent people – people with varying ideologies –
have been present in Catalonia, particularly Barcelona,” he said. “They tend to
turn up for the kind of events we’re seeing in Barcelona.”
Reports
have already emerged of some of the violent protesters speaking neither Catalan
nor Spanish.
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