Protesters blocked roads and railways in Spain's prosperous northeastern region of Catalonia on Monday to mark the first anniversary of an illegal independence referendum that prompted the Spanish government to take constitutional measures that restricted Catalan autonomy.

Activists from the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), a network of civic groups set up in a bid to uphold the legitimacy of the 2017 ballot and the creation of a Catalan republic, forced traffic to divert on the Passeig de Gracia, one of Barcelona's main thoroughfares, where they gathered with pro-secessionist banners. </s> BARCELONA (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters attempted to block roads and train tracks in the Spanish region of Catalonia on Monday while students marched in Barcelona to mark the one-year anniversary of an ill-fated referendum on independence from Spain.

In Sant Julia de Ramis, regional leaders gave speeches and people queued to re-enact the vote that was banned by Madrid and the courts for being against Spain’s constitution.

A year ago, the village saw violent clashes between riot police and those attempting to vote.

“The first of October will be the seed of the republic,” said regional parliament speaker Roger Torrent, speaking on a platform backed with a slogan reading ‘Oct. 1: do not forget or forgive’.

In the town of Girona, protesters attempted to shut a train station by sitting on the tracks and laying out the Catalan regional flag on the tracks, video footage showed. Protesters also laid out tyres along a motorway to impede traffic.

Six people were arrested in Barcelona on Saturday after pro-independence protesters clashed with riot police, and as thousands joined rival demonstrations to mark the first anniversary of the polarising vote.

The protests were much smaller than last year and demonstrators later called off the attempted blockages. Traffic was circulating normally around Barcelona’s main streets, municipal police said.

Madrid imposed direct rule on Catalonia after it declared independence following the vote. Regional elections later reinstated parties favouring a split with Spain, although the popular vote went to those wanting to remain part of it.

Polls in Catalonia show a fairly even split between those who favour remaining in Spain and those who want independence.

Maria del Mar Lladro, 55, walking her dog in a Barcelona park on Monday said she didn’t support the independence movement and said others like her were often ignored.

“There are a lot of us but we don’t make much noise. It could be seen badly, you could be singled out,” she said. </s> Activists block roads and railway to mark a year since referendum result was overruled by Madrid

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Tens of thousands of Catalans congregated in Barcelona on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the region’s unilateral and illegal independence referendum as groups of pro-independence activists blocked roads, motorways and a high-speed rail line and surrounded the Catalan parliament.

Police in the city estimated that about 180,000 people took part in a rally in the city on Monday evening. Tensions flared between police and protesters as some hardline demonstrators jumped over barriers at the entrance to the parliament. There were similar scenes outside the Barcelona headquarters of Spain’s national police.

Crowds of students filled the city’s central square on Monday afternoon, waving yellow, red and blue separatist flags and chanting “1 October, no forgiving, no forgetting”. Nearby, others let off smoke bombs and fireworks.

The huge rallies came after members of the grassroots Committees for the Defence of the Republic occupied streets in Barcelona and Lleida and the motorways to Madrid and France. They also obstructed the train line between Figueres, Girona and Barcelona but services were restored by 10am local time.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Catalonia’s pro-independence supporters march in Barcelona, Spain. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images

In Girona, protesters stormed a government office, tearing down the Spanish flag and replacing it with the pro-independence estelada (starred) banner.

Catalonia’s nationalist president, Quim Torra, made a symbolic visit to a polling station in the small town of Sant Julià de Ramis, where police prevented his predecessor Carles Puigdemont from voting last October.

Speaking on Monday morning, Torra had urged the protesters to “keep up the pressure”.

“Everything began on 1 October and everything goes back to 1 October,” he said. “The lesson of 1 October and its values are what we need as we face the coming weeks and months.”

In a video message released on Monday, Puigdemont said: “Let us not stray from the only possible way to live in a full democracy: the [Catalan] republic and its international recognition.”

Puigdemont later criticised the protesters who forced their way into the regional parliament, tweeting: “If they’re wearing hoods, they aren’t 1 October people. If they use violence, they aren’t 1 October people. We did it with our faces uncovered and in a peaceful way. That is how, a year ago, we overcame an authoritarian state.”

Torra’s call for continued direct action had led Spain’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, to remind the Catalan president of his official duties.

“We’ll keep trying to reduce tensions and maintain dialogue, and ask everyone to fulfil their responsibilities,” he said. “Order means order, and public order in Catalonia has to be guaranteed by the Catalan government, which is led by Mr Torra.”

Catalonia remains deeply divided over the issue of independence a year after Puigdemont’s administration staged the vote in defiance of the Spanish government.

The referendum was marred by violence as officers from the Guardia Civil and national police stormed polling stations, beat voters with batons and fired rubber bullets.

The central government responded to the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence by sacking Puigdemont and his cabinet, taking control of the wealthy north-eastern region and calling a snap regional election.

Although pro-independence parties retained their majority in last December’s vote, the staunchly unionist Citizens party took the most seats and polls suggest Catalans are evenly split over whether to secede.

The new socialist government of Pedro Sánchez has taken a more conciliatory approach than the conservative government it replaced, offering a vote on increased self-government but categorically ruling out a referendum on self-determination or independence.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thousands of people attend a protest on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Catalan illegal independence referendum in Barcelona, Spain. Photograph: Alberto Estevez/EPA

Cracks have appeared in the independence movement, with moderate figures calling for a more realistic, long-term strategy to achieve a sovereign republic, while Puigdemont and Torra advocate pushing ahead with what they see as their mandate from the referendum.

In last year’s poll, 90% of those who voted opted for independence, but turnout was 42% as unionist Catalans boycotted the poll.

However, the biggest obstacle to negotiations is the continuing detention of nine Catalan independence leaders who are due to be tried early next year for their roles in the push for secession. Puigdemont fled to Belgium days after declaring independence and several other pro-independence politicians remain in self-imposed exile.

Spanish government ministers have acknowledged that it would be better if the jailed leaders were allowed out on bail, but have stressed that it is a judicial question rather than a political one.

On Saturday, 24 people were injured and six arrested in Barcelona after scuffles broke out at a rally held to honour the police deployed to prevent the referendum.

Reuters contributed to this report </s> Activists blocked roads and rail lines in Catalonia on Thursday as a region-wide strike began against the trial of separatist leaders for their role in a failed 2017 secession attempt.

Called by a small pro-independence union, Intersindical CSC, but without the backing of larger unions, the one-day strike was not widely followed in the northeastern region although it generated several protests.

Public transport in Barcelona was slower than usual but most shops remained open.

Traffic authorities in Catalonia said activists cut off around 20 roads, including the A7 highway that links Spain to France, the A2 between Madrid and Barcelona and the main entry points to the Mediterranean city.

Police cleared several of the road blocks and detained two protesters, a spokesman said.

Activists also briefly blocked train traffic by occupying the tracks at a station in Barcelona and in other parts of the region, according to the company that manages Spain’s rail network.

At midday, hundreds protested in the central University Square, where the city’s oldest university stands, and another demonstration is planned for the evening.

“We’re here in solidarity with those who are victims of a trial that just doesn’t hold water,” said Jaume Sole, a 45-year-old engineer.

The Catalan employers’ association has denounced the work stoppage as politically motivated.

Separatist parties and associations are backing it.

They began mobilising last week in solidarity with the Catalan separatist leaders on trial for pushing a secession referendum in October 2017 in defiance of a court ban, and a subsequent short-lived declaration of independence.

On Saturday, around 200,000 people including regional president Quim Torra protested in central Barcelona, police said, behind a banner that read “self-determination is not a crime.”

Torra’s separatist executive has expressed solidarity with the strike and cancelled all official events planned for Thursday.

The trial of the Catalan separatists started on February 12 under intense domestic and foreign scrutiny.

It was due to last three months but the court on Wednesday sped up the process to try and finish the trial before snap general elections on April 28.

Catalonia’s former president Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium soon after the declaration of independence on October 27, 2017, is not among the defendants as Spain doesn’t judge people in absentia for major offences.

So far, those on trial have defended the peaceful nature of the secession movement.

They have justified holding the referendum on a democratic mandate they say they got from voters in Catalonia who handed separatist parties a majority in 2015 polls.

This prompted unusually outspoken comments from King Felipe VI on Wednesday who said it was “unacceptable to appeal to a so-called democracy that is above the law.”

Defendants have also said the proclamation of independence was a mere political declaration without legal effect.

On Thursday, Santi Vila, a regional government member at the time, said the referendum was actually “a big political mobilisation” rather than a plebiscite given the Constitutional Court had banned it.

“It was about tightening the rope without it breaking,” Vila, who faces up to seven years in jail for misuse of public funds and disobedience, told the court.

Prosecutors accuse the defendants of implementing a strategy concerted by the regional government, parliament and pro-independence associations to achieve secession outside the law.

They accuse nine of them of rebellion, a serious offence that implies a “violent uprising.”

Prosecutors point for instance to damage made to police cars during a pre-referendum protest on September 20, 2017, or claim separatists used citizens as “human walls” against police dispatched to stop the referendum.

Independence supporters and the defendant’s lawyers, however, argue there was never any violence.

Jordi Sanchez, head of the powerful ANC pro-independence association who was at the protest on September 20 and faces up to 17 years in prison, accused prosecutors of “criminalising and penalising a demonstration.” </s> Student strikes, emotional speeches and mass demonstrations were planned to commemorate the Oct. 1, 2017, vote that Spanish courts had deemed illegal and that caused the country’s gravest political crisis in decades.

SANT JULIA DE RAMIS, SPAIN—Pro-secession activists in Catalonia blocked major highways, train lines and avenues across the northeastern region Monday on the anniversary of a banned referendum that was crushed by police and failed to deliver independence from Spain.

In Girona, north of Barcelona, hundreds of activists on Monday occupied high-speed railway tracks, halting train traffic for more than two hours before they peacefully left the local station. Some protesters then moved to the local headquarters of the Spanish government’s delegation, demanding the removal of the national flag from the building.

The day began with early protests called via online messaging apps by the Committees for the Defence of the Republic, or CDRs. They are local activist groups that emerged after last year’s independence declaration, based on the referendum’s results, was never implemented. Central authorities took control of Catalonia and a judicial investigation landed top separatist leaders in jail while others fled the country.

The anniversary is being marked by a fractured Catalan independence movement amid a timid dialogue with the central government, now in the hands of a minority Socialist administration.

The CDRs also shared photos and posts on social media showing road blockages on regional roads and along the AP-7 highway, the main north-south artery running through eastern Catalonia and leading to the French border.

Maria Vila, a protester who was placing “Republic under construction” stickers in Barcelona’s main thoroughfare, said she wanted to highlight last year’s violence and demand more progress on secession.

Their presence also disturbed traffic on the main roads of Catalan cities like Lleida and Barcelona, the regional capital, where marches are planned throughout the day.

“The Catalan government has not done much and we are determined to make the Catalan Republic happen, in any way we can, even if it is by holding another referendum, a legal one,” she told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, members of the regional government and other top authorities returned to Sant Julia de Ramis, the northern town that has become a symbolic place for Catalan separatists because one year ago police stormed into the local school to prevent people from voting.

Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s president at the time, had been scheduled to vote there but had to find an alternative polling station when anti-riot police broke the gates of the school to confiscate ballot boxes and used batons to disperse and injure voters refusing to leave.

The incidents were broadcast live and brought pressure on the Spanish central government, at the time in the hands of conservatives. Separatists claimed a victory for independence in the vote despite its illegal nature, the police violence and a lack of oversight.

In a brief speech Monday, Catalonia’s current president, Quim Torra, called on supporters gathered outside of the Sant Julia de Ramis school to remember the lessons of the referendum and to press ahead with efforts to secede from Spain.

He spoke while some people held a banner behind him reading, in Catalan, “People demand, the government obeys,” a message that could be aimed at the Spanish government that says the country’s constitution doesn’t allow a referendum on a region’s secession, but also at regional separatist politicians who have been criticized for not delivering on the promise of independence.

Torra was hand-picked by Puigdemont from Belgium, where the separatist leader successfully fought off extradition and has been advocating for an independent Catalonia. On Monday, he released a video on Twitter calling on Catalans to remain united in persevering with the goal of breaking away from Spain.

“Let us not stray from the only possible way to live in a full democracy: the (Catalan) Republic and its international recognition,” Puigdemont said.

Torra has asked the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to authorize a binding vote on secession, and also to release the nine separatist leaders that are in pre-trial detention on rebellion and other charges.

Dialogue between the regional and national administrations has so far delivered some economic deals for funding the region but remains mired amid internal discord among separatists on the best strategy going forward and the weak parliamentary support for Sanchez’s government.

The spokesperson of his new centre-left government on Monday called last year’s police violence “a mistake” and blamed it for damaging the country’s reputation internationally. But Isabel Celaa also said the vote didn’t succeed: “There is nothing to celebrate” on Oct. 1, she told Cadena Ser radio.

Polls and recent elections show that the region’s 7.5 million residents are roughly equally divided by the secession question. </s> BARCELONA: Pro-independence protesters obstructed major roads and a high-speed railway line in Spain's Catalonia region on Monday, one year after a banned referendum on secession that was marred by police violence.

Hundreds of activists, many covering their faces with scarves, occupied high-speed railway tracks in Girona, north of the Catalan capital of Barcelona.

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Central streets in Barcelona and Lleida were blocked, as was the AP-7 motorway which leads to the French border, and A2 linking Barcelona to Madrid, images on Catalan TV showed.

The high-speed rail service linking Figueres, Girona and Barcelona "was interrupted" since the "tracks in Girona are occupied," Spanish state-owned rail operator Renfe said on Twitter.

The protests were called online by a grassroots group calling itself the Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDRs), founded to help stage last year's banned referendum and now demanding a clean break with the Spanish state.

The group tweeted a picture of a red, yellow and blue Catalan separatist flag on the track of the station in Girona as protesters stood around it.

Twenty-four people were injured and six detained on Saturday during a rally -- and a counter demonstration -- in Barcelona by police paying tribute to colleagues deployed to prevent the 2017 Catalan independence referendum.

The Catalan government, then led by Carles Puigdemont, on October 1, 2017, pushed ahead with a referendum on independence for the region despite it having been deemed illegal by the Spanish courts.

The vote was marred by a violent police crackdown on polling stations.

Even if it was illegal and therefore non-binding, 2.3 million people cast their ballots out of 5.5 million eligible voters, 90 per cent of whom voted to break from Spain. Opponents of independence largely boycotted the vote.

After the Catalan government declared independence on October 27, Madrid swiftly sacked the Catalan government, prompting several key figures to flee abroad, including Puigdemont.Others were jailed. </s> BARCELONA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Catalans filled central Barcelona on Monday to mark the first anniversary of an ill-fated independence referendum, as protesters made short-lived attempts to block roads and train tracks in the northeastern region.

Crowds of students filled the city’s central square, waving yellow, red and blue separatist flags and chanting ‘October 1, no forgiving, no forgetting’. Nearby, others let off smoke bombs and fireworks.

Madrid imposed direct rule on Catalonia after it declared independence following the referendum. Elections later returned a regional government favouring a split with Spain though a party supporting union won most votes.

Polls in Catalonia show a fairly even split between those who favour remaining in Spain and those who want to secede, while Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said he favours dialogue on the region’s future but has ruled out any moves towards independence.

Monday’s protests showed the independence movement was not beaten, said 57-year-old warehouse worker Marcal Mata.

“We want to send the message that it didn’t end on that day (last year). And although the world’s eyes are no longer on us, we will push on,” he said.

Maria del Mar Lladro, 55, walking her dog in a Barcelona park on Monday said she was in the pro-union camp. “There are a lot of us but we don’t make much noise. It could be seen badly, you could be singled out,” she said.

Elsewhere in the region, hundreds of protesters attempted to block train tracks and roads, with some laying tyres across a motorway, but they were quickly dispersed.

Events also passed off with little drama in Sant Julia de Ramis, a village where violent clashes broke out a year ago between riot police and those attempting to vote.

People queued there on Monday to re-enact the ballot - which Madrid banned as anti-constitutional - while regional leaders gave speeches. “The first of October will be the seed of the republic,” said regional parliament speaker Roger Torrent.

On Saturday, six people were arrested in Barcelona after pro-independence protesters clashed with police, as thousands joined rival demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the polarising vote. </s> Strikers advocating for Catalonia to secede from Spain are blocking major highways, train tracks and roads across the northeastern region.

Thursday's general strike has been organized by unions of pro-independence workers and students. On paper, they are demanding improved social policies including a 35-hour work week and a higher minimum wage but the protests are being fueled by outrage at Spain for putting on trial a dozen separatists who pushed for Catalan independence in 2017.

Catalonia's transit authorities say the disruptions are affecting main thoroughfares in Barcelona and half a dozen major highways and railway tracks elsewhere in Catalonia. Protesters burned tires at one of the highways.

In Barcelona, students and the pro-secession group ANC are holding separate marches later Thursday. ANC's protest slogan is "self-determination is not a crime." </s> Activists blocked roads in Catalonia before daybreak on Thursday at the start of a region-wide strike against the trial of separatist leaders for their role in a failed secession attempt in 2017.

Traffic authorities in the northeastern region said they had cut off around 20 roads, including the A7 highway that links Spain to France, the A2 between Madrid and Barcelona and the main entry points to the Mediterranean city.

Activists also blocked train traffic by occupying the tracks on two railway lines, according to the company that manages Spain's rail network.

The one-day strike has been called by Intersindical CSC, a small pro-independence union, to protest against the trial of 12 separatist leaders that opened last week at Madrid's Supreme Court.

The union has the support of separatist parties and associations, but not of the other bigger unions.

The Catalan employers' association, meanwhile, has denounced the work stoppage as politically-motivated.

The region's separatist government has expressed solidarity with the strike and cancelled all official events planned for Thursday.

The trial of 12 Catalan separatist leaders and activists, nine of whom are accused of rebellion, started on February 12 under intense domestic and foreign scrutiny.

They are being tried for pushing an independence referendum in October 2017 in defiance of a court ban, and for a subsequent short-lived declaration of independence on October 27.

Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont, who fled for Belgium soon after, is not among the defendants as Spain doesn't judge people in absentia for major offences.
On the one-year anniversary of the Catalan independence referendum, protesters block roads, train tracks and the entrance of the Barcelona stock exchange and students go on strike.