The rally participants spoke out for the rights and freedoms, for democracy and solidarity, and for release of opposition politicians. The protesters demanded Spain to revoke the warrants for the arrest of the Catalan leaders, as well as allow all those accused of a mutiny of links with the October referendum on independence to return to the autonomy.
Arrested Catalan politicians are accused of organizing an illegal referendum on independence and incitement to insurrection. For the last in Spain, they face a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
On October 1, Catalonia held a referendum on separation from Spain. 90% of voters supported the independence of the region. On the day of the referendum, there were mass clashes with the Spanish police, as a result, more than 840 people were injured. Madrid obviously recognized the results of the voting as invalid.