Catalunya separatists stage protest march in Brussels

PRO-INDEPENDENCE campaigners from Catalunya will stage a protest march in Brussels today (Thursday) calling for the release of four politicians who remain behind bars for their role in the disputed referendum on October 1.

Under the slogan Despierta Europa ('Wake up, Europe'), the march has been organised by the Catalunya National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, whose leaders, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart respectively, are currently in jail.

Catalunya's now-ex regional president Carles Puigdemont, as well as the four ministers he fled to Belgium with a month ago, will join the protest, which is expected to be made up of around 20,000 people.

The demonstration will be just a day after Puigdemont's predecessor Artur Mas called for 'maximum support' for electoral candidates on the pro-secession party Junts Per Catalunya ('Together for Catalunya'), headed up by Puigdemont himself, who intends to stand for regional Parliament again on December 21 from Belgium, which he and his ministers have been banned from leaving.

The protest was due to start at 10.30 today to 'denounce the repression of the Spanish State' against Catalunya's separatists in front of the Council of Europe, European Commission and European Parliament.

Òmnium and the ANC have announced they will call for a meeting with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to ask the EU to intervene in Catalunya's situation.