A fresh wave of protests rippled through Barcelona over the weekend, bringing spats, skirmishes and flying balls — but not the violence which has plagued the Catalan capital over the past couple of weeks.

The scheduling of back-to-back demonstrations, first by independence supporters and then by their loyalist rivals, had stoked fears of a fresh paroxysm of turmoil in a city which has been on edge ever since nine separatist leaders were jailed on October 14. Many had fretted about a repeat of the riots which engulfed central Barcelona in the days after the sentencing, when pro-independence protests veered out of control.

This time, however, the police were able to maintain control. Two people remain hospitalized after Saturday’s independence demonstration, which culminated in a tense protest outside the Spanish police headquarters, but the demonstrators stopped well short of launching rockets and Molotov cocktails at the Mossos d’Esquadra officers. Instead, they settled for lobbing plastic balls, many of them emblazoned with pro-independence messages. 

Of course, the relative tranquillity of the weekend’s activities hasn’t stopped the two sides from squabbling. Both loyalists and separatists have been at pains to insist they ‘won’ the weekend and that their event attracted superior numbers, as their endless tit-for-tat squabble continues.

The official police figures point to a clear victory for the separatists, whose event attracted 350,000 demonstrators on Saturday afternoon — as opposed to 80,000 for the loyalist event on Sunday morning. The organizers of the pro-Madrid rally claim their attendance numbers have been grossly underestimated as part of the separatist propaganda claim, and in fact 400,000 people turned up to cheer them on. Of course, those behind the independence rally make a similar claim, suggesting their numbers could have been as high as 750,000.

‘A very clear message’

Saturday’s demonstration was essentially a two-part event. First came the main protest, backed by Omnium and the Catalan National Assembly and held on Carrer Marina, a stone’s throw from the Barceloneta beach. Then a more radical demonstration, pushed by the hard-line Democratic Tsunami and Republican Defense Committees, held on Via Laetana, where the Spanish police force is located.

As the sun dipped behind the beachside skyscrapers on Saturday afternoon, a vast crowd gathered in a square dedicated to those who volunteered in the 1992 Olympics, many draping Catalonia’s Estelada flag behind them like a superhero’s cape. They chanted the words “justicia” and “independencia” and sang the Catalan national anthem, Els Segadors (The Reapers), a revolutionary paean which celebrates the Catalan peasants’ revolt of 1640.

After a mass march from central Barcelona had culminated in front of the main stage, speeches were given by a string of Catalan leaders including Marcel Mauri, a spokesman for Omnium — whose president Jordi Cuixart was among those jailed two weeks ago.

Mauri told the crowd that “we believe in a country where fundamental rights can’t be trampled on, where no-one can be convicted of sedition for organizing peaceful protests or putting out ballot boxes, where no-one is arrested or is the victim of police brutality for defending their ideas.” He said he carried a “very clear message to the state institutions: prison, repression and incarceration can’t stop the will of an immense majority of the Catalan people.”

The event carried a clear message: that despite the recent violence, the Catalan independence movement is overwhelmingly peaceful, with no truck for the chaos that has been inflicted on Barcelona by hard-line demonstrators.

One demonstrator, who didn’t want to be named, told InsideOver: “We’ve seen all the violence from the Spanish police — both in the way they handled the 2017 referendum and in the way they’ve responded to the demonstrations over the past couple of weeks. Our way is one of peace. We want to demonstrate, but in a peaceful way.

“Don’t believe what the Spanish media say. They love manipulating the facts. We are here because we want to stand up for democracy and human rights, in a way that is peaceful and constructive.”

However, despite the message of peace, the atmosphere changed markedly when the protest switched to Via Laetana, the street which became a Dantesque dystopia of burning cars and bloodied bodies in the initial post-sentencing backlash.

The event may have been designed to mark a continuation of the afternoon’s rally, but its crowd and atmosphere were now markedly different. The initial protest, thronged with families and elderly people, had been a benign affair by the sea; the evening event, dominated by young protesters wearing scarves to cover their faces, was altogether more fractious. 

Reporters, wary of the simmering tension, wore helmets as they listened to the massed crowd chant about the lying Spanish press — reflecting a widespread belief that the reportage of the recent violence has been nothing more than a smear campaign. 

Eventually, the Mossos d’Esquadra vans arrived, prompting a brief flashpoint as protesters were sent scurrying backwards. Eventually, however, the police were able to create their own no-man’s land around the headquarters and disperse the crowd — something they have singularly failed to do during recent demonstrations.

Carnival atmosphere

In everything but its core message, Sunday’s loyalist gathering bore close resemblance to the initial independence rally. Families packed the iconic Passeig de Gracia boulevard in central Barcelona, waving Spanish flags as well as the banner of the European Union. The streets played host to a red-and-yellow carnival, a celebration of life in a country famed the world over for its exuberance. 

Just like their counterparts on Saturday afternoon, the loyalists who came together on Sunday strived to paint a picture of enlightened moderacy. They sang the national anthem as well as Viva España, and demanded prison for Carles Puigdemont (who, unlike many other separatist leaders, managed to flee before he could be jailed back in 2017). But their message was clear: if you want to blame anyone for the recent bloodshed, it’s not us.

One participant, a butcher from Sabadell, told InsideOver:  “Firstly we don’t want independence and apart from that, [we’re here] for the violence that’s being seen these past few weeks in Barcelona. People can protest, as we’re doing now, but peacefully — not in the violent way that we’ve witnessed.

“A lot of those who don’t want independence stay quiet out of fear. They are scared to say what they think. Really in Catalonia, I’d say 80% of people don’t want independence. 

“Catalonia is a beautiful place, we have good food, good weather, beaches, good hotels, and this is destroying everything.”

To support the local population a significant number of people had come from elsewhere in Spain, carrying messages of support. One of them, a lawyer from Madrid, had taken his entire family on a six-hour trip to Barcelona to, as he told us, “support the Catalan people and tell them that we’re with them.

“We want to show that here there’s not only independence supporters. There’s also a section of the population, a significant majority, who — although you can’t protest in the way we’ve seen the radicals do — want to stay part of Spain.”

More to come

Already, thoughts are turning to the next event. Hardline separatist groups have planned a number of further actions in Barcelona over the next few days, including a strike which is set to bring further disruption to the city. 

Both sides will continue to argue that theirs is the path of reason and moderacy, and that any other interpretation is a complete fabrication by the other side. The sniping will continue in the press and the two factions will keep claiming propaganda victories as they try to outflank one another.

For now, though, Barcelona is approaching something resembling calm. The weekend’s huge protests may have turned into a propaganda battle, but thankfully they didn’t create a real one.

L'articolo Frontline Barcelona: Huge Protests Engulf City proviene da InsideOver.

In recent weeks, a gripping story has seeped out of Barcelona’s sweltering subway system. Its heroes are a group of vigilantes clad in sports clothes, have-a-go heroes hunting the pickpockets who pilfer from unsuspecting tourists. The story paints a vivid picture of a city on the edge, whose politicians can no longer be trusted to protect their people.

These vigilantes have been patrolling the underground network for a decade, picking off the thieves in relative obscurity. But they’ve finally been dragged out of the shadows by Barcelona’s security crisis, which shows no sign of abating. With over 25 crimes being committed every hour, a city renowned for its golden serenity is now being portrayed as a melting pot of crime and unrest.

In a desperate attempt to seize the narrative, Barcelona’s politicians have finally announced a crackdown. But no-one seems particularly convinced it will make any difference.

Boiling point

The Catalan capital has always had its shadier areas, of course. The multicultural barrio of Raval, popular with boozy tourists, has long attracted police scrutiny for its ethnic tensions. But Barcelona has never had no-go zones, places that visitors are warned to avoid at all costs. Over recent months, however, things have turned decidedly ugly.

Seven people have been murdered since the start of summer, the latest a 26-year-old man who was stabbed at a disco in the Port Olimpic neighbourhood last week, after a dispute over a stolen mobile phone. As if these bloody feuds weren’t bad enough for the city’s reputation, the brutal attacks on two foreign diplomats – one of which proved fatal – have generated uncomfortable headlines around the world. The latest reports show that robberies are up 30%, and at least one sexual assault is committed every day. Street scuffles are now so common that no-one can keep count. 

As the people of Barcelona search for scapegoats, the spotlight has fallen on two prominent figures. One is the regional interior minister Miquel Buch, reviled by local security forces for failing to give them adequate resources. The other is Barcelona’s left-wing mayor Ada Colau, who stands accused of denuding local security forces and allowing criminals to act with impunity. Colau continues to claim that Barcelona is among the most secure cities in the world, but her opponents accuse her creating “disaster and chaos.”

Now, finally, it appears the politicians are ready to act. A new plan, backed by Buch and Colau, is in the works. Headlined Barcelona Secure City, it promises hundreds of new police units as well as a brand-new command centre near the central Placa Catalunya neighbourhood, which will allow the two primary police forces – the municipal Guardia Urbana and the regional Mossos d’Esquadra – to liaise with one another. The plan’s working committee has also demanded the modification of the Spanish penal code to ensure that repeat thieves face jail time, rather than fines.

Cynical response

However, many remain unconvinced. The plan won’t be finalized for several weeks, but already the unions of both the Guardia Urbana and Mossos d’Esquadra have spoken out in condemnation, saying they don’t have the resources to provide the increased security presence.

A spokesperson for the Mossos union, Uspac, told InsideOver that Buch and his fellow politicians are guilty of “neglect” in the way they have allowed the security situation to escalate, and pointed out that Mossos officers are paid less for over-time than for regular hours – a situation which makes many reluctant to work the extra shifts that will be necessary under the plan.

“If they want to put extra officers in one area, they’ll have to take them from another,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t think that’s the best way forward.”  

The reaction from the Guardia Urbana’s union, Sapol, was even more emphatic. Their spokesperson told us that Colau and her allies have “tried to dismantle our control structure”, removing judicial assistance from the officers while giving it to those arrested, and accused them of running a campaign of “persecution” against the agency which has allowed mafias to insinuate themselves.

Just like the Mossos, the Guardia Urbana believes that “you can’t take officers from one place and put them in another — if you do that, the problem will get even bigger.” The problem will only be solved, the spokesperson says, by paying the officers properly and giving them the necessary support to run a 24-hour service.

“We’ll carry on”

Perhaps the most troubling reaction of all comes from the vigilantes, the ones who’ve been patrolling the underground for years and have risen to stardom at the worst possible time for Barcelona’s leaders.

The group’s figurehead is Eliana Guerrero, who has been running the patrols since the beginning. She told InsideOver that Barcelona’s security situation will only be resolved if the authorities are willing to take proper action – something which she believes they have no intention of doing.

“They’re going to do a quick fix,” Guerrero said. “They’ll rush through, like we’ve seen before [with previous legislative changes]. They’re going to muddle through with a botched job, a patch-up, and it’ll be a case of ‘ok, we’ve fixed everything.’ It won’t be the case.”

Although Guerrero is a leftist herself, she told us that Colau and her supporters have allowed their ideology to blur their approach to administration.  

“They see the police as the enemy, and there’s certainly resentment from the law enforcement bodies. And we’ve seen her give plenty of scope to certain groups – yes they are human beings and we have to find solutions, but you can’t give them so much free rein that things spiral out of control, as we’re seeing now.”

In light of the recent response the vigilantes have received, the politicians would doubtless love them to stop their patrols. However, Guerrero told us she had no intention of calling a halt, vowing “to keep undertaking these patrols until I see a real change.”

No doubt the politicians will continue their charm offensive over the coming weeks, before their security blueprint is finally ready for roll-out. They’ll make further lavish promises of increased security, better coordination, and a clean-up of those now-infamous no-go areas.

But for now, at least, Barcelona continues to simmer. The frenzied summer tourist season may be drawing to a close, but few people believe things will cool down any time soon.

L'articolo Barcelona Crisis And The Clash Between Politicians And Vigilantes proviene da InsideOver.