Anniversary of Catalunya IndyRef brings radical protesters onto streets

The association which calls itself Committees in Defence of the Republic [of Catalunya], or CDR, blocked off the high-speed AVE rail link between Figueres (Girona province) and Barcelona, which has only just got back on track, as well as the AP-7 and A-2 motorways.

Tailbacks of around two kilometres have been reported on the AP-7 between Vandellòs and L'Hospitalet de l'Infant (Tarragona province), forcing motorists to divert onto the N-340 inter-provincial highway, and through Barberà del Vallès.

Queues have been up to 12 kilometres on the same motorway between Cerdanyola and El Paipiol and around nine kilometres on the A-2 between Sant Andreu de la Barca and Sant Vicenç dels Horts (Barcelona province), with additional three-kilometre gridlocks between Sant Joan Despí and Cornellà de Llobregat on the same road.

Similar-length queues have been seen on the entrance roads into Barcelona city and across the metropolitan area itself.

Protesters vandalised the provincial outpost of the regional government in the city of Girona and obstructed reporters speaking live on site.

Clashes between opposing factions as counter-protesters and the CDR came face to face have become violent in some cases.

Former regional government president Carles Puigdemont, the main man behind the disputed referendum on October 1, 2017, spoke from Belgium, where he has been in exile for nearly a year.

Puigdemont, who cannot set foot again in Spain due to a national arrest warrant which would put him straight behind bars, condemned the actions of the CDR and said the radicals did not represent the majority of those who support the right to vote on Catalunya's future.

At national government level, the right-wing PP party – ousted from the presidency in early June by a no-confidence vote – called for Spain's leader Pedro Sánchez to reapply Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, an action taken last October to strip Catalunya of its self-governing powers.

But socialist leader Sánchez has urged everyone not to rise to the bait, saying the CDR is seeking a reaction and he does not wish to give them the satisfaction of achieving this.

Sánchez is treading a thin line on the issue of Catalunya's independence: he does not agree with the region's breaking away and becoming a separate country, or even the holding of a referendum on the issue; however, several of the pro-secession parties in Catalunya backed his no-confidence vote which put him in power and, with just 84 Parliamentary seats out of 351, needs to keep them happy.

He has been attempting to offer olive branches and open dialogue with them.