Defenders of Spanish unity massed within the streets of Catalonia’s capital Barcelona on Sunday, waving nationwide and European flags and chanting “Viva Espana” two days after regional lawmakers voted to sever the area from Spain.
Protesters flocked of their tens of hundreds via Barcelona’s streets, in a sea of red-and-yellow Spanish flags, brandishing placards studying “De Todos” (It belongs to all of us).
The stand-off has plunged Spain into its worst political disaster in many years and raised alarm in Europe.
“We’re all Catalonia,” proclaimed an enormous banner as the gang chanted “Jail for Puigdemont”, and “Lengthy reside Spain”.
Secessionist chief Carles Puigdemont and his regional govt have been axed by the central authorities on Saturday, a day after Catalan lawmakers voted to declare the area of seven.5 million individuals a republic.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy additionally dissolved the regional parliament, and referred to as December 21 elections for a brand new one.
“I’m enraged about what they’re doing to the nation that my grandparents constructed,” stated protester Marina Fernandez, a 19-year-old pupil from Girona, a separatist stronghold.
In her hometown, she can’t communicate out for Spanish unity or “depart my home with the Spanish flag,” she instructed AFP.
Because the march acquired underwayay, the deputy president of the deposed Catalan authorities lashed out at Madrid over what he referred to as a “coup d’etat”.
“The president of the nation is and can stay Carles Puigdemont,” the axed chief’s deputy Oriol Junqueras wrote in Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui.
Junqueras used the phrase “nation” to consult with Catalonia, and signed off because the area’s “vp”.
“We can’t recognise the coup d’etat in opposition to Catalonia, nor any of the anti-democratic choices that the PP (Rajoy’s ruling Well-liked Social gathering) is adopting by distant management from Madrid,” he wrote.
‘They’re dictators’
Flor Pena, a 59-year-old initially from the northwestern autonomous area of Galicia, described the separatists’ actions as “shameful”.
“The factor to do now’s to beat them on the polls.” Miguel Angel Garcia Alcala, 70, travelled from the city of Rubi, 22 kilometres from Barcelona, for the march, held close to the place tens of hundreds of individuals had celebrated the brand new “republic” with music, wine and fireworks simply two days earlier.
“I don’t agree with these individuals holding us by the hair,” Alcala instructed AFP. “It’s unlawful what they’ve performed… They’re dictators.”
For 35-year-old workplace employee Silvia Alarcon, the separatists “reside in a parallel world, slightly surreal. I’m indignant that they declare to talk for all Catalans when they don’t.”
‘Viva Espana!’
The Catalan disaster was triggered by a banned independence referendum on October 1 shunned by many, and marred by police violence.
Then on Friday, Catalan lawmakers handed a movement, by 70 votes out of 135 within the secessionist-majority regional parliament, to declare the area of seven.5m individuals impartial from Spain.
Rajoy responded by deposing the regional authorities, dissolving its parliament, and calling December 21 elections to switch them.
Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, was briefly put in command of administering the insurgent area.
Ines Arramadas, chief of the Ciudadanos essential opposition occasion in Catalonia, instructed journalists on the march {that a} majority of the area’s inhabitants wished to “get well our future”.
“Right this moment the silenced majority of Catalonia returns to the streets. It as soon as once more reveals, with dignity and respect, that almost all of Catalans really feel Catalan, Spanish and European,” she stated, a day after hundreds of individuals took half in an analogous march in Madrid.
Representatives of Rajoy’s conservative PP have been additionally at Saturday’s rally, in what for some resembled the beginning of an election marketing campaign.
An opinion ballot printed in centre-right newspaper El Mundo Sunday stated separatist events would lose their majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament if elections have been held right now.
‘Democratic opposition’
As prosecutors ready to file expenses of insurrection in opposition to Puigdemont subsequent week, he referred to as on Saturday for “democratic opposition” to Madrid’s energy seize ─ the primary curtailment of regional autonomy since Francisco Franco’s brutal 1939-75 dictatorship.
Roughly the dimensions of Belgium, Catalonia accounts for about 16 per cent of Spain’s inhabitants and attracts extra vacationers than anyplace else within the nation.
It produces a fifth of Spain’s financial output ─ equal to that of Portugal.
Earlier than the upheaval, Catalonia loved appreciable autonomy, with management over training, healthcare and policing.
However whereas fiercely protecting of their language, tradition and autonomy, Catalans are divided on independence, in line with polls.
Spain enjoys the backing of the USA and allies in a secession-wary European Union nonetheless reeling from Britain’s determination to go away its fold.
Many worry the financial influence because the standoff drags on, with some 1,700 corporations having moved their authorized headquarters out of Catalonia thus far.
Afterward Sunday, the Actual Madrid soccer membership, supported by Rajoy, will face Puigdemont’s favorite, Girona, within the Catalan aspect’s dwelling stadium.