THOUSANDS of students filled the streets of Barcelona and Girona yesterday (Thursday) carrying huge banners reading: “We don't want to fail democracy,” “We want to vote on 1-O,” and “We're voting to be free.”
High school, college and university students gathered in Barcelona in the Plaza de la Universidad as part of a mass demonstration organised by the campaign group Universitats per la República, whose spokesman Jordi Vives says the strikes and lock-ins in every campus in Catalunya were 'huge'.
“It's been massive, even at private universities,” he said.
Students marched carrying giant Catalunya regional flags, the Estelada, with some wrapping them around themselves like capes.
The protest was peaceful, although far from quiet – the students turned it into a street carnival – and ended outside Sants station in the square opposite, the Plaça dels Països Catalans ('Catalán nations') as a symbolic gesture of their support of the independence referendum.
Barcelona Autonomous University (UAB) students blocked the AP-7 motorway, causing 10-kilometre tailbacks in the southbound carriageway and three-kilometre gridlocks on the B-30 south, the knock-on effect of which led to queues of eight kilometres on the C-58 interchange with the AP-7.
