Assaults on passers-by, clashes with Mossos at end of unionist rally

BarcelonaSeveral far-right groups roamed the streets of Barcelona on Sunday afternoon after participating in the unionist demonstration, causing incidents and some tense stand-offs. In the morning, some people assaulted a Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat employee when they tried to enter the Provença train station via the exit turnstiles on their way to the march. They also threw lighters and coins at the staff of Catalonia’s public TV who were covering the unionist demonstration hosted by Societat Civil Catalana and supported by, among others, Ciudadanos, the PP, the PSC, Españoles de a Pie, Plataforma per Catalonia, Vox, Somatemps, and other extreme right organizations.

After the demonstration, attended by some 300,000 people according to local police, another group carried out a racist attack at the corner of Pau Claris and Casp. Shoves, punches and, once one of the aggressors had walked off, cries of "morito, morito" (“towelhead, towelhead” in Spanish) from a distance, while they did something of a "dance" while waving Spanish flags. Thus was the racist aggression against a young Sikh witnessed by a passerby early in the afternoon, after the demonstration. The witness recorded the events and reproached the demonstrators ironically for their "pacifism", while they were chanting "this is Spain". The reaction of a middle-aged woman who also carried a Spanish flag was to say to him "What are you doing?" and knocking his mobile phone to the ground. In spite of everything, the witness was able to save the recording and posted it to Twitter with the username @coconutsugarsug. ARA contacted him and he gave the newspaper a higher quality version of the video, which can be seen here.

At the same time, a taxi driver was slightly injured on carrer Casp, near Passeig de Gràcia, when a can was thrown against the windshield of his car and shattered the glass. The driver was treated by Emergency Medical Services (SEM) for cuts to his face. Local city police opened an investigation and filed a report on the injuries. For their part, the Mossos d'Esquadra will start an investigation if the taxi driver files charges. Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, expressed her rejection of the events via a post on Twitter.

The Mossos d'Esquadra arrest a man who attacked two South Americans

The moment of greatest tension took place in Plaça de Sant Jaume, where some of the demonstrators went after the rally finished. Once there, they clashed with Mossos d'Esquadra, throwing objects, insulting them, and trying to hit them. The unionists shouted "Viva España" and "Franco would have got rid of your nonsense". The Catalan police were, in fact, the target of shouts and slurs throughout the march, with participants saying that the Mossos "are not our police", in contrast with the Spanish National Police and the Guardia Civil, who received cries of support.

The Mossos d'Esquadra detained a man who assaulted a police officer with a flagpole in the Plaça de Sant Jaume as the alleged author of the crime of attacks against authority. No arrests were made at the time, but according to sources within the Mossos, officers located the same man hours later, at 7:20 pm, when he was assaulting two people of South American descent in Plaça de Catalunya.

After the incidents in Plaça de Sant Jaume, the same riot police unit which had faced off against the unionists went to Plaça de Catalunya in response to reports of an aggression against street vendors working in front of the FNAC store. But according to police sources, along the way they ran into a group that had attacked a South American couple who were waiting for the tourist bus. The victims told the police that they wanted to file a complaint, and when police approached the highly agitated group of aggressors, they recognized the man who hours earlier had attacked them with a flagpole. They identified the others and arrested the man in question.

Actor and producer Jordi Brunet denounces an aggression

Another assault took place at five o'clock in the afternoon in Plaça de Catalunya, and the victim was actor and producer Jordi Brunet. He told ARA "when I was parking my motorcycle next to the Zurich Cafe, a skinhead unionist pushed me and knocked down my motorcycle while everyone looked on. I hit him twice, the people started to call for the police, and the attacker ran away. The motorcycle has a few scratches. I'm fine, a little bit shaken up. And he has the dubious honor of having been on the receiving end of my first blows. By the way, afterwards I gave my usual performance at the Capitol theater".