Barcelona: Protesters blocked roads and train lines across Catalonia on Wednesday during a strike called by a pro-independence group after several separatist leaders were detained in Madrid over their divisive secession drive.
More than 50 routes including major motorways were cut, causing widespread disruption in the region, which has been plunged into uncertainty over its now-deposed government’s bid to split from Spain.
Huge banners were draped across at least one tunnel in Barcelona, blocking entry and activists also cut off main roads linking the region of 7.5 million people to France and to the Spanish capital.
“Warning. Big problems at the heart of the commuter train system due to an invasion of people and objects on the tracks,” Rodalies de Catalunya, which manages commuter trains in the region, said on Twitter.
Lawmakers in Catalonia — a region with its own language and distinct culture accounting for a fifth of Spain’s GDP — declared unilateral independence from Spain on October 27 following a banned referendum on the issue.
Regional authorities say 90 per cent opted to break from Spain in the unregulated referendum, although less than half of eligible voters turned out in a region deeply divided on independence. Madrid responded by revoking Catalan autonomy, dismissing its government and parliament, and organising new regional elections next month as it tries to stem the fallout from Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.
A judge in Madrid last week ordered eight separatist politicians to be remanded in custody for their role in the independence movement.
Deposed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who is in Belgium facing extradition to Spain, on Tuesday criticised the EU for backing Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in his bid to quash Catalonia’s secession.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel on Wednesday denied his government was “in crisis” over Puigdemont’s presence, which risks reigniting communal tensions in Belgium.
“There is a political crisis in Spain and not in Belgium,” Michel told parliament, after Flemish separatist members of his coalition government spoke out in support of Puigdemont.More than 2,000 businesses have moved their headquarters out of the region as the turmoil drags on. — AFP
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