Police arrest 13 amid Spanish Cabinet visit
23 December, 2018
Police dragged Catalan separatists off roads and arrested 13 during protests on Friday as the Spanish Cabinet met in the regional capital of Barcelona in both a show of central power and an attempt at negotiation.
Secession supporters used tyres and rubbish to barricade highways from before dawn, and thronged the streets of Barcelona in their thousands, many flying the striped Estelada, the Catalan independence flag that bears a lone star.
Some set off flares and burned an image of King Felipe VI, while police scuffled with masked youths in chaotic scenes. Emergency services said 32 people suffered light injuries, most of them local police.
More peaceful rallies continued into the evening, with thousands marching along the Passeig de Gracia shopping street, normally a draw for tourists, chanting ‘Freedom for political prisoners!’ and ‘Independence!’
Many were wearing yellow, a color that had become associated with jailed separatist leaders.
Protester Joan Toll lamented the lack of progress after an illegal referendum and self-declaration of independence in 2017.
“If you think about what has happened in the last year, we have achieved nothing. We are only being repressed more,” Toll, a 44-year-old chemist, said during one of the morning rallies. “No one wants to see violence, but people are getting tired.”
The decision by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to convene his Cabinet in Barcelona for the first time since the crisis began underlined Madrid’s opposition to full independence for the prosperous northeastern region of 7.5 million people.
But it could also help him to secure the survival of his minority government with the aid of Catalonian pro-independence parties in return for more autonomy.