Catalan Referendum Update: Some 300,000 Protest In Barcelona
Shouting “occupation forces out” and “the streets will always be ours,” tens of thousands took to the streets of Barcelona Tuesday to protest police violence during a banned weekend independence referendum in Catalonia.
Columns of people converged onto the city centre as the region went on general strike, a police helicopter flying overhead, drawing angry whistles as Catalans reel from the violence that marred parts of the Spanish region on Sunday.
“Closed for revolution,” read a sign, while parents and children from a school used as a polling station on Sunday unrolled a giant banner on the street made by students earlier on.
“Navas-Sagrera (a Barcelona neighbourhood) for peace and democracy,” it read, dozens of multi-coloured little handprints above.
“You can’t stop the youth,” said Alfredo Vidal, the 68-year-old owner of a dry-cleaning shop, pointing to the hundreds of students walking slowly by, many draped in blue, yellow and red separatist flags.
