Mass protest over 'political prisoners' lights up Barcelona

THREE-QUARTERS of a million people turned out onto the streets of Barcelona last night (Saturday) in a mass protest against Article 155 and calling for the release of 'political prisoners', who include Catalunya's now-ex deputy president Oriol Junqueras and eight ministers, separatist organisations' Òmnium and the Catalunya National Assembly (ANC) leaders Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez respectively, and will soon include regional president Carles Puigdemont and four of his ministers, currently released with charges in Brussels and banned from leaving Belgium.

Catalunya's Parliamentary chairwoman Carme Forcadell, who has just got out of custody thanks to a €150,000 bail cheque signed by the ANC, was not present, having stayed well clear at her lawyers' recommendation.

Former Catalunya president Artur Mas was not at the march, as he is now in Belgium, having arranged to meet with Puigdemont.

Barcelona's mayoress Ada Colau did not attend, and openly criticised Puigdemont's team for 'betraying the people of Catalunya', particularly the 63% of residents who did not vote for independence – most of whom, in fact, did not vote at all, since they considered the referendum illegal.

Colau has, however, broken away from the socialists she was governing Barcelona in coalition with, since they – along with the PP and Ciudadanos – backed the move to apply Article 155 of the Constitution and place the region under State control.

Ada Colau wants to see a 'political solution to a political problem', and a legal referendum, saying criminalising Catalunya's leaders is not the answer.

Socialist leader at national level Pedro Sánchez said: “How can you explain Forcadell's six-figure bail release to all those who have lost their jobs as a result of businesses moving out of Catalunya?”

In practice, many companies who chose to bail out have merely moved their head office addresses to another branch elsewhere in the country rather than shifting operations out of Catalunya entirely.

The march was intended to be 'another Diada', which is Catalunya's regional day held on September 11 and always involves a massive parade through the streets of Barcelona – although in recent years, the Diada de Catalunya has been more a pro-independence march than one of regional pride and bank holiday enjoyment.

But with most Diadas attracting well over 1.5 million residents, the march yesterday fell well short of expectations at only 50% of the turnout.

Effort was not lacking, though – over 900 coaches were thrown on to take demonstrators to Barcelona from all over the region, and giant screens were set up with 'motivational messages' from Puigdemont and other top-flight Catalunya figureheads now on the wrong side of the law.

Once it got dark, the 750,000 protesters used their mobile phones as torches to light up the throng so it could be seen from the sky (pictured).