A PRO-INDEPENDENCE group who set up dozens of yellow parasols and towels on the beach in Blanes (Girona province) will not face legal action since the prosecution says it falls within the boundaries of 'freedom of expression'.
The Committees for the Defence of the Republic of Catalunya (CDR) staged this peaceful and colourful protest in response to an anti-secession group's having done likewise on another beach in the region with umbrellas and towels in the shades of the Spanish national flag.
Several of the yellow parasols bore a large black letter and were arranged to read 'Libertad' ('Freedom') and 'Democracia' ('Democracy') – ironically, in Castilian Spanish rather than in catalán.
Each of the 80 umbrellas carried the slogan 'free the political prisoners', and several Catalunya regional flags, known as the estelada because of its giant star, were flown alongside them.
The CDR recently put up yellow crosses on the beach in Blanes and on the Maresme beach in Barcelona.
But the regional prosecutor has not recommended any action against the CDR, since no actual harm, nuisance or vandalism was involved and there is no law against political slogans on beach parasols, nor their colour.
Yellow, in Catalunya, is at present associated with the 'free the political prisoners' campaign calling for the release of regional politicians who are either remanded in custody or in exile elsewhere in Europe as a result of their role in the referendum.
Those in prison include deputy regional president Oriol Junqueras and numbers two and three on the reigning Junts per Catalunya ('Together for Catalunya' or JxCat) party's electoral list, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart.
Among those who would be arrested if they set foot again in Spain but are safe as long as they stay in exile are former regional president Carles Puigdemont and three of his ministers, plus ex-education minister Clara Ponsatí who is now back in her old job teaching at Edinburgh's St Andrew's University, and the CUP party's Anna Gabriel who has successfully applied for a five-year residence permit in Switzerland.
Photograph by the CDR on Twitter (@CDRLloretdeMar)
