PARIS, Nov 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nineteen people were arrested on Tuesday morning – 18 by the French authorities and one by the Catalan regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra – as they were participating in a roadblock of the AP-7 highway near La Jonquera, a busy border crossing between Spain and France.
Trucks and other traffic had been diverted to another smaller road as protesters installed concrete barriers on the highway and set up a stage to hold concerts.
Riot police on both sides advanced toward the border line and surrounded around 300 demonstrators taking part in a protest called by Democratic Tsunami, an apparently leaderless movement that advocates direct action in support of Catalan independence.
The roadblock was cleared at around 11am, three hours after the police began taking action against the protesters, who numbered around 2,000 in total.
At 8am French officers from the National Police and National Gendarmerie began to use pepper spray and batons to forcibly remove demonstrators from their section of the highway, known as the A9, near Le Perthus. By then the highway had been blocked for 24 hours.
The Spanish Civil Guard and the Mossos moved in from their side at around 10.30am.
The Spanish Confederation of Freight Transportation CETM had warned that the roadblock could have a daily economic impact of €15 million and affect 20,000 trucks taking goods across the border. Democratic Tsunami has announced three days of street action.
According to Spanish government sources, Spain’s caretaker Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marklaska and his French counterpart Christophe Castaner were “in constant communication” about the situation.
The protest comes just after Spaniards returned to the polls on Sunday for the fourth general election in as many years. The far-right party Vox, which campaigned heavily against the Catalan independence movement, made the biggest gains of the night, winning 52 seats in Spain’s lower house, the Congress of Deputies.
Catalonia has been rocked by mass protests since long prison sentences were handed down in mid-October to nine separatist leaders who spearheaded a failed independence bid in 2017.
Asked what Catalan police should do with the protesters sent back over the border from France, Catalan government leader Quim Torra said there was no reason for charges to be brought.
“We ask for this operation to be conducted with exquisite care, so that no one gets hurt,” he told Catalunya Radio. — NNN-AGENCIES
