Protectors of Spanish unity massed in the streets of Catalonia’s capital Barcelona on Sunday, waving nationwide and European flags and shouting “Viva Espana” 2 days after local legislators voted to sever the area from Spain.
Protesters gathered in their 10s of thousands through Barcelona’s streets, in a sea of red-and-yellow Spanish flags, displaying placards checking out “De Todos” (It comes from everyone).
The stand-off has actually plunged Spain into its worst political crisis in years and raised alarm in Europe.
“We are all Catalonia,” declared an enormous banner as the crowd shouted “Prison for Puigdemont”, and “Long live Spain”.
Secessionist leader Carles Puigdemont and his local executive were axed by the main federal government on Saturday, a day after Catalan legislators voted to state the area of 7.5 million individuals a republic.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy likewise liquified the local parliament, and called December 21 elections for a brand-new one.
“I am infuriated about what they are doing to the nation that my grandparents constructed,” stated protester Marina Fernandez, a 19-year-old trainee from Girona, a separatist fortress.
In her home town, she can not speak up for Spanish unity or “leave my home with the Spanish flag,” she informed AFP.
As the march got underwayay, the deputy president of the deposed Catalan federal government blasted Madrid over what he called a “coup d’etat”.
“The president of the nation is and will stay Carles Puigdemont,” the axed leader’s deputy Oriol Junqueras composed in Catalan paper El Punt Avui.
Junqueras utilized the word “nation” to describe Catalonia, and signed off as the area’s “vice president”.
“We can not acknowledge the coup d’etat versus Catalonia, nor any of the anti-democratic choices that the PP (Rajoy’s judgment Popular Party) is embracing by push-button control from Madrid,” he composed.
‘They are totalitarians’
Flor Pena, a 59-year-old initially from the northwestern self-governing area of Galicia, explained the separatists’ actions as “outrageous”.
“The thing to do now is to beat them at the surveys.” Miguel Angel Garcia Alcala, 70, took a trip from the town of Rubi, 22 kilometres from Barcelona, for the march, held near where 10s of countless individuals had actually commemorated the brand-new “republic” with tune, white wine and fireworks simply 2 days previously.
“I do not concur with these individuals holding us by the hair,” Alcala informed AFP. “It is unlawful what they have actually done … They are totalitarians.”
For 35-year-old workplace employee Silvia Alarcon, the separatists “reside in a parallel world, a little surreal. I am upset that they declare to promote all Catalans when they do not.”
‘Viva Espana!’
The Catalan crisis was set off by a prohibited self-reliance referendum on October 1 avoided by numerous, and ruined by cops violence.
On Friday, Catalan legislators passed a movement, by 70 votes out of 135 in the secessionist-majority local parliament, to state the area of 7.5 m individuals independent from Spain.
Rajoy reacted by deposing the local federal government, liquifying its parliament, and calling December 21 elections to change them.
Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, was momentarily put in charge of administering the rebel area.
Ines Arramadas, leader of the Ciudadanos primary opposition celebration in Catalonia, informed reporters at the march that a bulk of the area’s occupants wanted to “recuperate our future”.
“Today the silenced bulk of Catalonia go back to the streets. It when again reveals, with self-respect and regard, that most of Catalans feel Catalan, Spanish and European,” she stated, a day after countless individuals participated in a comparable march in Madrid.
Agents of Rajoy’s conservative PP were likewise at Saturday’s rally, in what for some looked like the start of an election project.
A viewpoint survey released in centre-right paper El Mundo Sunday stated separatist celebrations would lose their bulk in Catalonia’s local parliament if elections were held today.
‘Democratic opposition’
As district attorneys prepared to submit charges of disobedience versus Puigdemont next week, he contacted Saturday for “democratic opposition” to Madrid’s power grab ─ the very first curtailment of local autonomy given that Francisco Franco’s ruthless 1939-75 dictatorship.
Approximately the size of Belgium, Catalonia represents about 16 percent of Spain’s population and draws in more travelers than anywhere else in the nation.
It produces a fifth of Spain’s financial output ─ comparable to that of Portugal.
Before the turmoil, Catalonia took pleasure in substantial autonomy, with control over education, health care and policing.
While increasingly protective of their language, culture and autonomy, Catalans are divided on self-reliance, according to surveys.
Spain delights in the support of the United States and allies in a secession-wary European Union still reeling from Britain’s choice to leave its fold.
Lots of fear the financial effect as the standoff drags out, with some 1,700 business having actually moved their legal head office out of Catalonia to date.
Later Sunday, the Real Madrid football club, supported by Rajoy, will deal with Puigdemont’s preferred, Girona, in the Catalan side’s home arena.