Pro-independence protesters are blocking major motorways, train lines and avenues across Catalonia, one year after a banned referendum was crushed by Spanish police.
Monday’s protests have been called on online messaging apps by the Committees for the Defence of the Republic – local activist groups that emerged after the unauthorised vote on 1 October 2017.
In Girona, north of Barcelona, hundreds of activists occupied the high-speed railway tracks, while regional police tried to stop more protesters from entering the area of the station. Local media also reported road blockages on the AP-7 highway, the main artery along eastern Catalonia leading to the French border, and in central streets of the cities of Lleida and Barcelona, the regional capital.
On Sunday, 14 people were injured and six arrested after police clashed with Catalan separatists in downtown Barcelona. At least one regional police officer was also injured in the riot, according to Catalan authorities.
Violence erupted after separatists protested at a march of around 3,000 people, which was being held to demand Spain’s nationwide police officers were paid as much as Catalan’s regional police.
The clashes come after a poll in late September showed only 15 per cent of Spaniards consider the political situation in Catalonia to have improved, while 69 per cent believe it has worsened.