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Catalonia Protests Bring Barcelona to a Standstill
Posted
October 18, 2019
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8,015
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October 18, 2019
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0:29Now PlayingPro-independence protesters blocked highways across Catalonia and led a general strike that channeled outrage at jail sentences handed down to separatist leaders earlier this week.
The AP-7 highway was closed near the town of La Jonquera at the French border, with protesters leaving nails on the road surface to puncture car tires. The AP-2 highway also was blocked near the Catalan city of Lleida further south with burning tires and mattresses, the Spanish government said.
Trains from Barcelona are operating without major delays to services and the airport is largely functioning normally, with just 55 flights canceled out of 979 scheduled, the government said.
The protest called by two unions provides another lightning rod for anger at Spanish Supreme Court sentences totaling about 100 years for nine separatist leaders who tried to engineer an unconstitutional break from Spain in 2017. The unrest is playing out against the backdrop of an election campaign that will call voters to the polling booths on Nov. 10 to choose among political parties that have struggled to agree on a common response to the upheaval.
Some protesters set fire to dumpsters and cars and others clashed violently with police this week across Catalonia, Spain’s largest regional economy and home to many multinationals. Meanwhile, protesters voiced their frustration at sentences for sedition as crowds gathered in downtown Barcelona.
“Let no one have any doubt, there will be no impunity for the vandalism that we’ve seen in the last few days in some Catalan cities,” acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said at a news conference in Brussels. There were 16 arrests last evening, acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.
Marches from five Catalan cities converged on Barcelona Friday, swelling the number of protesters in the capital of the northeastern region. Workers at the nearby factory of Volkswagen’s Spanish unit halted production.
“The ruling is very excessive -- there are people with similar convictions who committed terrible crimes,” said Alfredo Balasch, 70, a retired farmer from the Catalan town of Tarrega.
Wrapped in a pro-independence flag and wearing a yellow hat and ribbon, he said he was puzzled by the clashes occurring in Barcelona this week. “Some demonstrators are going too far,” he said.
The head of Catalonia’s regional interior department reiterated Friday that it condemns the violent acts that have marked the protests this week against the court ruling. The strike on Friday shows the most effective way to protest the ruling is through peaceful marches, regional interior chief Miquel Buch said in televised remarks.
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