BARCELONA:Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez held emergency talks with oppositionleaders yesterday about violent protests by separatists in Catalonia. Scores ofpeople have been hurt and dozens arrested in the past two nights of clashesbetween protesters and police in Barcelona and other Catalan cities.
Protesters arefurious at the jailing of nine separatist leaders for their role in a failed2017 independence bid that sparked a deep political crisis. The convictions onMonday revived tensions in the wealthy northeastern region, split betweenCatalans loyal to Madrid and those who want it to break away from Spain. InBarcelona on Tuesday night, police charged hundreds of masked demonstrators whothrew projectiles at officers and set garbage bins and cardboard boxes on fire.
In a tweet,Sanchez said the government "firmly and resoundingly condemns the violencethat seeks to break co-existence in Catalonia." Yesterday thousands ofprotesters departed on foot along highways from five Catalan towns towardsBarcelona. They planned to gather there on Friday, when unions have called ageneral strike in the region. Sanchez received conservative opposition leaderPablo Casado of the Popular Party yesterday morning.
He was scheduledto meet later with the leaders of centre-right Ciudadanos and far-left Podemos.He said he would "convey the government's determination to guaranteesecurity, with firmness, proportionality and unity." The separatistmovement has said there will be no let-up in the protests. They erupted afterthe Supreme Court on Monday convicted 12 Catalan separatist leaders of seditionover the 2017 referendum and short-lived declaration of independence. The courthanded prison sentences of between nine and 13 years to nine of them and finesto the other three. The ruling thrust the Catalan dispute to the heart of thepolitical debate ahead of Spain's November 10 general election, its fourth inas many years.
'No return'
Police arrested29 people in the province of Barcelona, 14 in Tarragona province and eight inLleida, Spain's interior ministry said. Officials said 125 people were injuredin the protests, including 72 police officers, some with broken bones.Municipal cleaning crews used hoses to clear the streets of Barcelona of debrisfrom the dozens of fires which were set overnight.
The violentprotests marked a break with the mainly peaceful and festive pro-independencerallies which have been held in Catalonia since the separatist movement gainedmomentum nearly a decade ago. The separatist camp is frustrated over Catalanregional president Quim Torra's failure to deliver on his government's promiseto achieve independence.
On the wall of aluxury watch shop in an upscale Barcelona neighborhood, someone had scrawled"Torra, traitor". "We have embarked on a road of noreturn," the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), a radicalseparatist movement, tweeted. It called on the separatist regional governmentto "take a step forward by breaking with the Spanish state."
'Raisingtensions'
Catalonia's vicepresident Pere Aragones urged demonstrators to avoid violence. He said thatwould give Spain's central government a pretext to intervene in the region --as it did when it suspended Catalonia's autonomy after the 2017 independencebid. "Do not give them what they want," he said. Spain's conservativeparties have branded Sanchez a traitor for accepting the backing of Catalanseparatist parties to help him secure power in 2018, and for his willingness tonegotiate with them.
The conservativeparties have urged him to take a harder line against the protesters. "Inthe face of the violent unrest which is raising tensions in Catalonia, Sanchezmust activate the national security law," Casado said. "It is urgentto guarantee security and public order." On Monday, some 10,000 peopleblocked access to Barcelona airport, Spain's second busiest, for several hourson Monday. Demonstrators issued calls on social media to "Turn Cataloniainto the new Hong Kong" -- a reference to recent demonstrations againstChinese influence in that territory. - AFP